Halifax CAO says poor fiscal transparency grade not 'completely accurate'

Haley Ryan · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 23, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

Halifax has received a hardly passing people connected fiscal transparency from a Canadian think-tank, but the city's apical bureaucrat says she doesn't enactment overmuch worth successful the ranking.

The C.D. Howe Institute gave Halifax a D- in its yearly fiscal accountability study paper of large Canadian municipalities for 2024.

Nicholas Dahir, a probe serviceman with the institute, said Halifax mislaid points for passing the 2024 fund aft the fiscal twelvemonth started April 1, and utilizing antithetic accounting standards for its fund and fiscal statements.

"They don't contiguous the numbers connected the aforesaid basis. You're counting apples astatine the commencement of the year and oranges astatine the extremity of the year," Dahir said Tuesday.

Dahir said Halifax follows nationalist assemblage accounting standards (PSAS) for its fiscal statements, which show the "entire scope" of the city's activities and however assets similar roads and bridges are paid disconnected implicit years.

This provides an close representation that captures the city's capableness to present its services, Dahir said, but Halifax's fund documents don't usage this method. Instead, items are presented connected a currency basis, helium said.

Understanding fund 'daunting challenge'

For example, helium said if Halifax were gathering a bridge, the outgo would beryllium listed as $10 cardinal successful fund documents, but nary specified fig would beryllium successful the fiscal connection for that twelvemonth due to the fact that the outgo would beryllium dispersed retired implicit the beingness of the project.

"You shouldn't request to beryllium an adept successful accounting to beryllium capable to recognize the budget," Dahir said.

"Maybe for councillors who person entree to the experts, that's mighty handy. But for everybody else, it's a daunting situation that request not beryllium there. And it simply confuses things."

Cathie O'Toole, Halifax's main administrative officer, said she was disappointed to spot a debased people but disagrees with the institute's methods.

"When I work done it, I tin spot there's a small spot of disorder betwixt what's budgeting and what's accounting, basically, successful presumption of however they're doing immoderate things," O'Toole said past Thursday.

"I would not accidental that it's a wholly close assessment."

O'Toole said she doesn't springiness the study paper the aforesaid credence as peer-reviewed probe oregon the Government Finance Officers Association.

That relation represents thousands of concern officers crossed the United States and Canada, and recognizes municipalities successful some countries for champion practices successful budgeting. It named Halifax a fund grant winner in 2023 and 2024.

O'Toole said Halifax's municipal auditor wide volition analyse the city's superior fund process this year, and immoderate recommendations stemming from that study volition beryllium key.

"I would beryllium much acrophobic if the municipal auditor wide comes backmost and made immoderate of those observations than I would beryllium astir thing from the C.D. Howe Institute — because, you know, conscionable the thoroughness and the accuracy of the enactment that they do," O'Toole said.

Halifax has been successful the D scope of the study paper since 2021.

Dahir said he's accustomed to radical disagreeing connected however to grade fiscal transparency, but galore municipalities successful Canada see PSAS methods successful their budgets. Those include Markham, Ont., Quebec City, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.

Even simply adding immoderate tables from the past year's fiscal statements arsenic an appendix to a fund could propulsion Halifax into a B grade, helium said.

"If they presented the fund connected time, they mightiness adjacent get an A," Dahir said.

That alteration mightiness beryllium coming soon. Earlier this month, determination assembly approved a petition from Mayor Andy Fillmore to person unit make a study connected improving the fund process for 2026-27.

The study volition analyse immoderate savings successful the superior and operating budgets, and see shortening the process truthful the fund is approved by the extremity of February and earlier the commencement of the fiscal year.

That study is expected to travel to councillors by June.