The Grand Parade

These show notes will be updated on Monday (probably). The Val-d'Or Foreurs bus blew a tire on Sunday, which means minor hockey day down at the Metro Centre really jammed up my ability to sit down and link the stuff in the show. So that's a tomorrow job. Which is today you (if it's Monday)

Another week of city politics another week of this podcast. If you're here for the rabbit hole on drugs, right here is season 2 episode 2 of On Drugs about the history of weed in Canada https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/157-on-drugs/episode/15521363-s2-e2-cannabis-from-prohibition-to-legalization But in the rest of this episode host Matt Stickland goes over the meetings last week. What did Halifax's auditor general say about rec programming? Will deputy mayor Patty Cuttell be on the next season of Nathan Fielder's show? What was up with John Young last Thursday? Find answers to these questions and more in this week's episode!

It's everyone's favourite time of year, which means I've run out of time to do everything I need to do before Monday's deadlines, like write show notes. Are you looking for more information about something I said in the show, email me matt@grandaparade.news and apologies that it's not in the show notes like it normally would be. Ta ta for now, I have to edit a newspaper!

Were you expecting the start of season four and a budget preview? Well PSYCHE! Two things happened. First, Remembrance Day was not great, but it provides some context for Halifax's road safety strategy. Then in the second half of the show, some genuinely good news: police reform is taking tangible strides in the HRM, and the Board of Police Commissioners did good!

Short episode this week as Matt gets ready for Budget Season. In this episode, some hope, a budget season preview, preview, and another week where I go tell you to watch that video by Kevin over at HFX by Bike. This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8kCed6o4Bc&t=17s

In this episode host Matt Stickland recaps a relatively uneventful week in city politics. A lot of information about strategic plans, from HalifACT to Snow Clearing but not a lot of ACTion on any thing yet. Also in this episode, last week's board of police commissioners meeting happened and Matt talks about Eastern Passage's new police expense. Built to Fail YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/l8kCed6o4Bc?si=9BjkcecFQJAQbtCH The city's housing strategy survey: https://engagehalifax.ca/housing-strategy

This week is all about Road Safety and how Halifax has killed a record number of people this year on our roads. This violence is both publically funded at great expense and completely avoidable. In this episode, host Matt Stickland struggles to keep it together as he tries to mimic all of the mental gymnastics on display last week. As promised, here is the piece by Josh over on CPL.ca: https://www.canpl.ca/news/healey-madness-and-late-playoff-magic-at-the-wanderers-grounds Here's one of the articles about the Parisian cyclist that was murdered: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/10/18/cyclist-killed-in-paris-this-case-is-stirring-up-a-great-deal-of-emotion-among-people-who-travel-by-bike_6729762_7.html Here's a safestreetblog (an American road safety news outlet) article about that famously incorrect crosswalk study: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/02/12/traffic-engineers-still-rely-on-a-flawed-1970s-study-to-refuse-crosswalks Here is Ottawa's road safety Strategy: https://pub-ottawa.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?documentid=27362 Here is Hoboken's: https://www.vzhoboken.com/_files/ugd/365b92_c415cf40a108488d981e0609bd9a19f9.pdf And here is Hoboken's vision zero driver pledge: https://www.vzhoboken.com/ And here is Helsinki's plan: https://www.hel.fi/static/liitteet/kaupunkiymparisto/julkaisut/julkaisut/julkaisu-25-23.pdf And here is Halifax's: https://cdn.halifax.ca/sites/default/files/documents/transportation/streets-sidewalks/attachment-1-road-safety-strategy.pdf So now that you have seen the other student's homework, would you give Halifax a passing grade? No seriously, would you? Let us know, info@grandparade.news

I gotta be honest here. It's 7pm on Sunday night and I have a beer league hockey game to go to and I can't skip it because I'm the goalie. If there is information you wanted in these show notes but is not here please send all your complaints to matt@grandparade.news. Enjoy this week's show!

Another week at city hall and another week of the Grand Parade podcast. This week is a far less... let's say excited episode that runs back over the relatively mild municipal news since last Monday Here are the links promised in the show notes from the ep itself: The rise of Canadian Women's Rugby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Foq1rCWiYuA&t=1041s Get involved with your city planning here: https://engagehalifax.ca/2025-planning-changes

Fair warning, the failure of the Bus Rapid Transit pilot in 2022 (but formally at the last Transportation Standing Committee meeting) combined with the failures of council to do tax reform in the 28 years since amalgamation, and the failure to learn any lessons from the Bus Rapid Transit Pilot for the “improved” 2024 Road Safety Strategy sent me spiralling down a rabbit hole. Would you too like to come through the looking glass? No? Well, maybe you should avoid this episode. For everyone else, he’s an angry explanation for just how badly the council has failed us for the past 28 years.

We are back fully recharged to talk about a wet and wild council meeting. It actually wasn't all that wet or wild, as the Dartmouth Cove motion was dealt with early and largely without incident. Most of the interesting debates, and therefor most of this show is about the city's budget. The upcoming budget season, and our massive amount of debt, and our really high future tax rate. And when you get to the end, let me know what you think about a Grand Parade meetup and/or faux council award ceremony.

Apologies. Due to personal circumstances, physical illness and mental health, there will be no issue with the paper this week. More details on this and local roads in this week's abridged show.

Thanks to the sponsor of this week's show, there's not much in these show notes this week. In this episode Matt covers the three water issues council debated last Tuesday before shining a light on the city's sunshine list. In the paper this week we've asked our reader for some feed back, check it out in store.

Do you ever have one of those things where it's like a thing you do every week, but some weeks it's just like "OH MY GOD I HAVE TO DO THIS THING AGAIN!?" Not sure why I thought that was relevant, but this week's episode is a format that was a bit easier to manage. Join host Matt Stickland as he walks his dog and plans for the American invasion of Canada, all while singing Acadian pop songs.

The show notes will be as short as this week's routine meetings. What does Mortal Kombat have to do with underground parking? Listen to city hall reporter Matt Stickland break it all down. Contest? What contest? I haven't the foggiest.

This week we get back to the more neo-traditional clipped show format, recapping the last week of council meetings. Sportswashing, fiscal sustainability, road safety, park lighting, this week really had it all. Also this week host Matt Stickland explains what the plans for the future of this paper are, should we continue to be successful in this endeavour. Don't forget to rate and review this show and share it with your friends, and to the three of you who are reading this, hey, thanks for paying attention to the details.

Hey folks, I know I promised real show notes, but it turns out that was a lie. I find these hard to do and so far the feedback I've gotten on show notes is that no one reads these things anyway. You read this thing? Shoot me a message (matt(at)grandparade(dot)news, first one to do so gets one month's free subscription to the paper. That said, if you're looking for the text of the amendment I've suggested for emails-to-councillors purposes, here it is from the script: And I think it’s as simple as amending clause 21 from quote (1) Staff shall prepare a traffic calming plan for each project on the annual proposed implementation list and shall consider the physical characteristics of each street. End quote to read quote (1) Staff shall prepare an evidence based traffic calming plan in line with Intergrated Mobility Plan and/or Vision Zero’s and/or HalifaACT’s desired outcomes for each project on the annual proposed implementation list and shall align council priorities and the physical characteristics of each street when trying to determine how to reduce the danger of car traffic.

Big week in Halifax politics as Morris Street bikeway was killed and then immediately reanimated by Halifax's council. More people are homeless now than they were last year and Matt details the 20 some odd years of Halifax failing to accomplish real tax reform. By way of apology for the rougher than normal edit, here's the world anvil page for the D&D world my friend and I created. It's a North American pre-European contact-inspired world. https://www.worldanvil.com/w/nd26dp-landofsticks

As threatened, we've taken the week off but to fill the void left by our absence, we're re-airing a fan favourite. Here are the show noted from the episode In this week’s episode of The Grand Parade podcast, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman chat with economist Deny Sullivan about Halifax’s HAF blunders and why a labour shortage isn’t to blame for the city’s housing crisis. Plus, they delve into Halifax’s deferred plans to abandon its Strategic Road Safety Framework in favour of a new plan that is worse than the old one.

Last council meeting in July council started some pretty beefy discussions about tax reform. During that debate in early July, mayor Andy Fillmore suggested Halifax could learn lessons from how Hamilton and Winnipeg do their budgets. Since council isn’t meeting this week, it gave city hall reporter Matt Stickland time to go read other cities’ budget documents and bring you a budgetary book report about what Halifax can learn about sustainable budgeting from Winnipeg and Hamilton.