The Grand Parade

Hello sportsfans, it was a busy week at city hall with a full meeting of council, and two budget committee meetings. Halifax is in dire financial straights and a win for bike lanes on Tuesday was caught an L on Friday as the just saved bike lanes are now back on the chopping block. Also in this show, city staff 💩🛏️ on the taxi bylaw update, there's a really greasy vote and Matt breaks down why council is probably lying (to themselves) when they say they have the political will to make change in this city.

Budget season is back in earnest this week so RIP to all of Matt's free time and that's one of the reasons the recap part of the show is so short. But because budget season is back, we thought we'd give you a primer so y'all can get a quick reminder about how exactly past councils managed to have shot themselves in both feet, all 10 toes, the shins, knees and femurs over the past 30 years causing all of today's fiscal pain. It seems like a book club is a popular idea, so we will be reading Killed by a Traffic Engineer, by Wes Marshall and meeting to talk about it on Sunday, March 1, at 2:30 pm at Celtic Corner in Darmouth. Please email matt@grandparade.news to let us know if you are planning on coming by Valentine's day. We won't hold you to the RSVP, the pub just wants a better idea of the numbers to know where to put us.

In this show, before the ad break we go over what happened on Tuesday's council meeting, with a brief sidebar into road safety and why councillor Cathy Deagle Gammon makes her husband drop what he's doing to go pick up Matt's garbage. #sharedresponsibility In the second half of the show, we cover the Board of Police Commissioners meeting and go over Halifax's new stupid parking policy. And give Fillmore his due flowers from the debate. If you're a subscriber please note that Matt from the future did pop in at the 43 minute mark of this show and please go read Monday's paper for more details, but TL:DR, it council's fault, again (and also city staff and/or city processes as described in this episode, but I'm still digging into the story because I now think I'm missing a bit of context and have a media request in to get it. Stay tuned for updates.)

No real show notes this week as it's late and family game night. Here's the link for the suburban plan though: https://engagehalifax.ca/suburban-plan

Every week I fall a little bit more behind and it becomes harder and harder to do all the little things like write comprehensive show notes. So if you have questions about this episode, please, reach out and I'll get you answers. If you have questions for the mailbag show, please use the very long link below to submit them. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMPuDQyt7L2027BBCjQ2MA4_0yz-Xt2j5TwV8kFClqC_Xx_Q/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=112504436461387338909 Otherwise, have a good one and I'm gonna take a nap

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.