Halifax asks residents what city should prioritize for next four years

Haley Ryan · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 19, 2025 11:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 32 minutes ago

The Halifax Regional Municipality wants to cognize what residents worth astir from the city, and what nationalist dollars should beryllium spent connected implicit the adjacent 4 years.

HRM is gathering its caller strategical program for 2026-2030 arsenic the existent 2021-2025 program is successful its last year. This program volition usher municipal spending, and unit and assembly decisions for the adjacent 4 years.

Residents tin instrumentality portion successful an online survey connected the draught program until April 23.

"It's important for america to get those strategical objectives oregon goals right," Cathie O'Toole, Halifax's main administrative serviceman (CAO), said on Thursday.

"It's important for america to person a good, overarching program that reflects what the citizens want."

The draught program is focused connected supporting Halifax's colonisation maturation and is based connected the 2024 nonmigratory survey, workshops with unit and councillors, and themes that emerged from the caller municipal election.

There are 3 assembly pillars of priorities. First is "enabling prosperity," which includes expanding lodging proviso and adapting infrastructure to clime change. "Strengthening communities" covers exigency planning, protecting greenish abstraction and alternate first-responder models. 

"Moving better" includes goals similar improving transit reliability, postulation congestion and the information of each proscription modes including vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles.

O'Toole said it's important to perceive from residents astir wherever municipal dollars should beryllium prioritized, and what they could bash without, successful airy of pugnacious decisions ahead.

Mayor Andy Fillmore and the caller determination assembly had lengthy debates passim this 2025-26 fund play and made assorted cuts to support the spot taxation complaint flat. But fiscal unit person warned that much melodramatic changes to municipal services volition beryllium needed by adjacent fund play if assembly wants to support taxes from rising.

"If, for instance, improving nationalist transit emerges, arsenic successful our apical 3 goals … it whitethorn effect successful america having much assurance to spell guardant and suggest that, 'OK, we request to absorption much resources — radical and wealth — astatine transit for a fewer years,'" O'Toole said.

"[And] here's wherever we're going to beryllium making work reductions, oregon here's wherever we're going to beryllium pausing work expansion."

Feedback from the nationalist survey volition beryllium factored into the strategical plan, which volition beryllium finalized by determination assembly this summer.

The 2026-2030 program volition travel into effect adjacent April.