Over 500 residents of HRM responded to this online survey, which was an effort by the group Citizens For Halifax to gauge public support for their vision of the future of Halifax.

The raw feedback from this survey can be found here.

Halifax, NS, October 16, 2008 — Most municipal candidates are in touch with the interests of citizens and have a clear understanding of what Halifax needs to become the most vibrant and livable city in Canada, according to a recent poll conducted by Citizens for Halifax (CFH), an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to encouraging citizen engagement and government accountability in the Halifax region.

Citizens for Halifax conducted the informal electronic poll of municipal candidates in recent weeks to see who supports its seven central positions — positions that represent collective feedback from a series of citizen forums held within the last year. The poll found that 21 out of the 32 candidates who responded support at least six of the seven positions. This included mayoral candidates Sheila Fougere and David Boyd.

“It tells us the majority of candidates are on the right track when it comes to what citizens want and what this city needs,” said Malcolm Fraser, chair of Citizens for Halifax. “The general consensus is that Halifax needs a streamlined, sustainable municipal government, and tax rates that are more in-line with services delivered. We know what has to be done and this helps us identify who the right leaders are to get us there.”

Jim Connolly, Glenn Dodge, Andrea Hilchie-Pye and Dawn Marie Sloane are the candidates who agreed with all seven of the Citizens for Halifax positions, which include restructuring municipal government into more manageable units, tax reform that more closely matches services, development of the arts and cultural sectors, a comprehensive transportation system, and a more transparent and streamlined development process.

“We intend to work with like-minded candidates to achieve some of these strategic goals for the city. As citizens, we all need to work together to make sure the right people get in, and then stay engaged to help those leaders achieve change,” said Fraser.

Comments from the candidates indicate they strongly support the need for improvements to the current council structure, even though a majority (75%) are currently against dividing the municipality into two units.

In a simultaneous online poll of more than 500 Halifax area residents, Citizens for Halifax found that 62 per cent of respondents support the division of the municipality into two units, with smaller councils to better serve the rural and urban communities.

“Candidates and citizens have slightly different viewpoints, especially when it comes to dividing the municipality into two units,” adds Fraser. “But most candidates and citizens agree we need to make improvements to the governing structure, the tax system and the development process, and we need to put more muscle behind the arts, immigration and sustainability efforts.”

Key findings from the two polls include:

• 67 per cent of citizens who responded support changing HRM’s name officially from Halifax Regional Municipality to Halifax. The strongest support for the name change came from Timberlea-Prospect (79%) and Dartmouth (80%).
• 78 per cent of citizens and 72 per cent of candidates support tax reform that more closely aligns taxes with the actual cost of services delivered.
• 78 per cent of candidates and 77 per cent of citizens support more aggressive development of the arts and culture sectors by committing a minimum of one per cent of the annual municipal budget to this sector.
• 71 per cent of citizens and 72 per cent of candidates said yes to creating a chief sustainability officer position with the necessary authority and budget to ensure Halifax becomes the most sustainable city in Canada by 2020.
• Almost all candidates (97%) and three out of four citizens (75%) agreed with the development of an integrated intercultural strategy to attract and retain immigrants and to better support disadvantaged groups within our community.
• 84 per cent of candidates and 87 per cent of citizens said yes to the creation of a transportation authority to develop and implement a long term comprehensive transportation strategy that integrates all modes of transportation.
• Nearly nine in 10 candidates (88%) and eight in 10 citizens (80%) support adopting a more transparent and streamlined development process as proposed by the HRM By Design initiative.

Full results of the candidate and citizens’ polls are available at www.citizensforhalifax.ca .

About Citizens for Halifax

Citizens for Halifax is an independent, non-partisan organization created by citizens who live and work in Halifax and its surroundings. It advocates intelligent, thoughtful, fiscally responsible civic government with the goal of making Halifax the most livable city in Canada. Citizens for Halifax wants Halifax to have a bold and confident vision of its place in the world and to embrace its future while respecting its past.

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For more information, or to interview a Citizens for Halifax spokesperson, please contact:

Holly Dunn
Citizens for Halifax
902-422-2988 or 902-222-7316
holly@m5pr.ca

Citizens for Halifax Online Polls

Key Findings

Citizens’ Poll

• 512 people responded between September 23 and October 4 – most (73%) were not members of Citizens for Halifax.
• 67 per cent support changing HRM’s name officially from Halifax Regional Municipality to Halifax.
• The strongest support for the name change came from Timberlea-Prospect (79%) and Dartmouth (80%).
• The most resistance to the name change came from Woodside/Eastern Passage (75%) and Cole Harbour (78%).
• 62 per cent of respondents support the division of the municipality into two units with smaller councils to better serve the rural and urban communities more effectively and efficiently (373 responded)
• 90% of respondents from Timberlea-Prospect (District 22) and 81% of residents in downtown Halifax (District 12) support the rural urban divide.
• Eastern Shore – Musquodoboit Valley (District 1) and Waverley – Fall River – Beaver Bank (District 2) were 100 per cent against the division. Other districts opposing changes to municipal structure are Portland East Woodlawn (75%) and Middle and Upper Sackville-Lucasville (67%).
• 78 per cent are for tax reform that more closely aligns taxes with the actual cost of services delivered. (373 responded)
• 77 per cent are behind more aggressive development of the arts and culture sector by committing a minimum of 1 per cent of the annual municipal budget to this sector.
• 71 per cent support the creation of a Chief Sustainability Officer with the necessary authority and budget to ensure Halifax becomes the most sustainable city in Canada by 2020.
• 75 per cent are for the development of a integrated intercultural strategy to attract and retain immigrants and to better support disadvantaged groups within our community.
• 87 per cent of respondents agree with the creation of a transportation authority to develop and implement a long term comprehensive transportation strategy that integrates all modes of transportation.
• 80 per cent support the adoption of a more transparent and streamlined development process as proposed by the HRM By Design initiative.

Candidate Poll

• 32 Candidates responded, including mayoral candidate Sheila Fougere, between September 20 and October 4.
• 75 per cent of candidates were against the division of the municipality into two units with smaller councils to better serve the rural and urban communities more effectively and efficiently.
• 72 per cent of candidates support municipal reform that would more closely align taxes with the actual cost of services delivered.
• Almost eight out of 10 (78%) candidates support more aggressive development of the arts and culture sectors by committing a minimum of one per cent of the annual municipal budget to this sector.
• 72 per cent of candidates said yes to creating the position of chief sustainability officer with the necessary authority and budget to ensure Halifax becomes the most sustainable city in Canada by 2020.
• Almost all candidates (97%) agreed with the development of an integrated intercultural strategy to attract and retain immigrants and to better support disadvantaged groups within our community.
• 84 per cent said yes to the creation of a transportation authority to develop and implement a long term comprehensive transportation strategy that integrates all modes of transportation.
• Nearly nine in 10 candidates (88%) support adopting a more transparent and streamlined development process as proposed by the HRM By Design initiative.

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With the closing of the nomination period for local elections of Halifax Regional Municipality councilors and mayor, a number of articles and blogs are lamenting the absence of candidates from Citizens for Halifax. Yesterday’s article in the Chronicle Herald and a blog post from Tim Bousquet of The Coast are two examples.

As a Citizens For Halifax board member (and at the risk of drawing out the critics) I would like to take this opportunity to dispel some of the myths about Citizens for Halifax and its agenda in regards to municipal elections.

The overarching goal and mission of the CFH society has always been to ‘build the most vibrant and livable city in Canada’. To accomplish this goal, it would appear that the best way is by striving to ensure that the people who make the decisions about the city:

- share this vision, and
- are well suited to pursue it, and
- are afforded the opportunity and resources to do so once in council.

Hence, you will notice the apparent orientation of CFH is to focus primarily on HRM issues related to council, council members, candidacy, and elections.

The group formed in late 2007 as a direct community response to a growing frustration with the handling of city affairs. If you remember, 2007 was ripe with controversy for city council, with frequent headlines criticizing discussions related to cat bylaws and chickens on one end of the spectrum, to the Celine Dion debacle and the handling of the Commonwealth Games on the other end of the spectrum. It appeared that council had lost direction and is no longer working on the big picture items that are vital for HRM’s growth and the prosperity of its residents.

From the outset, skeptics of CFH raised two important questions:

- 1 What are the intentions/agenda of CFH (i.e. which issues will you promote in council), and
- 2 Will CFH run their own slate of candidates for municipal elections

In terms of an ‘agenda’, the issues CFH is promoting to council are publicly listed the CFH website (Click here to see the seven CFH statements). They are a result of various public engagement sessions held over several months leading to the summer AGM where members gathered to vote on adopting these position statements. Identifying these issues is no stroke of genius. After all, any resident of Halifax agrees that taxes are too high, public transit is unsatisfactory, and that council is too rural or too urban focused (depends on who you are talking to).

Contrary to some opinions that the ‘H’ in CFH stands only for peninsular Halifax and does not include the concerns of all member of HRM, a crowning big-ticket item on CFH’s agenda is the apparent urban/rural divide on council. This divide is causing a tremendous amount of inefficiency and territorial infighting on council, and dissatisfaction of residents in all areas of HRM who feel that progress on issues affecting their area of residence is extremely slow.

Such stalemate on council is counterproductive to creating ‘the most livable city in Canada’ within our foreseeable future. Many CFH members who reside outside the urban centers of HRM are therefore determined to ensure that ALL members of city council are committed to addressing the urban/rural issue, and that the candidate(s) have a clear plan and intention on resolving it within the next municipal governance cycle.

If a candidate’s platform doesn’t address the deadlock caused by the difference in rural and urban priorities on council, then HRM residents will be hard pressed to believe that this candidate is aware of the needs of the general public and the political advocacy work that will be required to resolve the root of the issue. Such candidate is more likely to to serve their term on council with no significant contribution to the future vision of HRM. The same logic would apply for candidates who feel that public transit in HRM is adequate, or that the existing tax structure is a fair reflection of services received in each municipality of HRM.

Residents of HRM must demand that each candidate (rural and urban) show a clear understanding and plan for addressing each issue as it relates to the future of this great city. Taxes, transportation, sustainability, development, and arts and culture are top priorities of majority citizens and should therefore be top priorities for the next municipal cycle. Cats, fireworks, and booking concerts may not be the best use of time for HRM’s highest municipal governing body. After all, if council is not discussing and working towards the big vision, who else will?

This brings us to the question of whether CFH intended to slate people for council and mayor. CFH received much heat from critics and some members of the media when a CFH public meeting queried participants about running a CFH-endorsed slate of candidates and mayor. Frequent comments from critics noted concerns about ‘lackey’ councillors and a puppet council. Various unattributed hidden agendas suddenly materialized as the ‘unannounced evil goals of Citizens For Halifax’. The society sustained many attempts at discreditation, painting its members as ‘elitists’ or ‘development-alists’
who are far removed from what the ‘real’ residents of HRM are asking for.

Ironically, current headlines are now looking at Citizens for Halifax as having ‘let down the public’ by ‘failing’ to produce candidates for mayor and city council.

Regardless of controversy, CFH will continue to encourage qualified candidates to run and will lend its support and resources to any candidate who agrees to pursue some or all seven areas of priority (identified by CFH members) during their term on council. CFH will work with existing council members to ensure that priority council-time is being devoted to the big goals and creating the most livable and vibrant city in Canada, in this lifetime.

And so, the Nova Scotia Provincial leader decided to send Letterman a more ‘official’ invitation. See video below.

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yABU4S40N8]

The clip appears on the Nova Scotia ‘Come To Life’ website. The province recently launched a new marketing effort to reinvigorate dwindling tourism and call back its expats who left the province for better fortunes in Western Canada. I must say that the new ads are much more polished and aggressive than previous initiatives. Check the new promotional videos on www.novascotialife.com. I spotted the billboard below in Calgary last month.

Some local groups welcome the new campaign, but believe that more concrete steps are necessary to achieve provincial prosperity and attract its flocking youth. Visit Fusion Halifax and Citizens for Halifax for more information on current initiatives for change.

And below is David Letterman’s interview with Ellen Page. The Golden Globe nominee is a common face in Halifax. She is often seen dining at the local organic resto-pub.

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCRYGmytEGI]