Halifax mayor to province: ‘Don’t intrude on municipal jurisdiction’ when it comes to housing

The provincial government has proposed amendments to the Halifax Regional Municipality Charter that would allow it to override municipal by-laws if they impeded housing development

The mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality and his fellow councillors are sounding off on the provincial government after the housing minister proposed amendments that he says would help expedite housing development.

Mayor Mike Savage says is displeased, but it mostly comes down to a lack of consultation and coordination between the two levels of government.

“Very disappointed,” Savage tells Global News. “Not only is this a dramatic intrusion of the municipal jurisdiction, but we had no notice, no heads up that this was coming.”

On Friday, John Lohr, the minister of municipal affairs and housing, tabled legislation to amend the Halifax Regional Municipality Charter, which would allow the Nova Scotia government to override any municipal by-laws that “are impeding housing development and construction.” But Lohr says right now, the province is only looking at the city’s approved changes to its noise by-law.

Previous changes approved by the municipality would limit the hours that construction noise could occur, beginning November 21, bumping the end time back from 9:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., and preventing rock-breaking from occurring on weekends.

“A lot of people in communities don’t want this kind of noise at all,” Savage says. “Some have said ‘workday only,’ meaning maybe 5 or 6 o’clock.”

But construction noise is a reality for a growing city.

“We’re in a housing crisis,” Lohr said Friday. “We have immense challenges to have more housing units built. We have a shortage of skilled labour, so to curtail the number of hours these people can work, the construction industry can work, we can’t accept that right now.”