Industry Says Noise Bylaw Would Impact Costs, Timelines Of New Halifax Housing
HALIFAX—Members of Halifax’s construction industry say a proposed noise bylaw could delay construction and make new homes in the city more expensive.
Halifax Regional Council will soon decide on a proposed bylaw designed to curb construction noise by putting stricter limits on the times of day construction can happen in the city.
Duncan Williams, the president and CEO of the Construction Association of Nova Scotia, claims the new rules would be devastating to the construction industry.
Losing 7.5 Hours A Week
In the HRM, construction can only happen during specific hours of the day. The rules exist to curb construction noise. Right now, those rules limit construction to between 7 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, and a slightly shorter period on weekends and holidays.
The proposed bylaw would cut back those weekday hours, forcing construction to stop at 8 p.m. instead of 9:30. In an average week, the change means 7.5 fewer working hours.
Williams claims those missing 7.5 hours a week will have a massive impact on how quickly new housing gets built, and how much it costs when it’s finished.
For big projects, he predicts costs could shoot up by 15-20 percent and construction could take six months to a year longer to complete.
Williams explains that reducing how long workers can be on the job doesn’t mean a job gets done faster. The same amount of work still needs to get done and if companies have less time each week to do that work it means more total weeks on the job.
“If it takes me 40 hours to build a building, it takes 40 hours to build that building. So I can either do that in 40 hours in one week, or I can do it in 20 hours over two weeks,” Williams says.
A Strain On Costs, And Labour
That extended timeline means developers get hit with higher bills for labour and equipment, and those costs ultimately get passed down to consumers once a project is finished.
Take, for example, construction cranes. Companies rent cranes for the duration of their project and stretching out project timelines means paying for months of extra crane time, even though the crane is doing the same amount of work.
Williams says reduced weekly construction hours will also play havoc on the already precarious labour force. He says workers won’t be happy when their hours (and paychecks) get cut because of the new rules.
“One of two things happens: either workers leave because they don’t want that pay cut at a time when everything is skyrocketing, or I have to pay them the same amount of money for less productive time,” Williams says.
“We’ve got an extremely tight labor force as it is. The last thing we want is to send them a message that this is not a good place to work and all of a sudden [workers] are back on planes going to Alberta because we’re forced to make very difficult choices.”
In either scenario, Williams says projects will end up costing more and finishing later. Both things he says the city doesn’t need when it’s staring down a housing crisis.
Lack Of Engagement From Council
Williams says he and others in the construction industry are frustrated by what they feel is a lack of meaningful engagement from council.
“We’ve had limited ability to communicate directly with the city councilors,” he says.
He says his association sent “multiple” letters “asking, begging, to be honest, that council sit down with us and have a conversation about what is the problem we’re trying to fix,” Williams says.
So far, very few have agreed to do that.
While city staff have been helpful and receptive, Williams feels most councillors haven’t fully considered the impacts of the proposed bylaw.
“Numbers and reason and business case are not being considered,” he says.
“We’re at a time where we need housing built faster, we need affordable housing built, we have a labour shortage, and we simultaneously have a boom in construction. All those things, practically speaking, we need more time for construction…We’re about to make very substantive changes to an industry without having a full understanding of the implications and considerations being truly heard by council.”
The Price Of A Growing City?
Williams understands how frustrating it can be to live with construction noise close to your home. However, he argues some noise is the price of growth.
“I’m not being unsympathetic to somebody who’s living next to a construction site. It is inconvenient, is it loud and noisy. We get it, we understand it,” he says. “[But] the reality is every single property, every single resident at some point had to experience that inconvenience as we built the city… that’s just the reality of a growing city.”
Many councillors, however, say they hear constantly from constituents complaining about extremely loud construction happening late into the evening.
At a Community Planning And Economic Development Standing Committee where the bylaw was debated, Coun. Kathryn Morse said she doesn’t think residents have been considered enough.
She pointed to a project in her district where two large towers are being built “in the backyards” of hundreds of residents.
She says constant noise from jackhammering and boulder removal happens seven days a week, long into the night, causing major disruptions to people’s lives.
“They get no break… they can’t go outside their houses, they’ve lost the whole summer,” Morse said. She worries this kind of “extreme” noise will only get worse as the city grows.
“I just don’t see that we’ve hit a balance that respects people’s rights to their own enjoyment of their own houses. I hear from residents almost every day about this,” Morse said.
Coun. Tim Outhit said many new residents in his district are shocked by how long construction can continue into the night.
“People come here from other provinces and they just cannot believe that you can go to 9:30 at night in a residential neighbourhood,” he said.
He argued that the construction noise rules were brought in “back in the old days” when work was much more seasonal. Since much more year-round work happens now the long hours don’t make as much sense.
Coun. Trish Purdy, meanwhile, said the city needs to consider its pressing housing challenges.
“Our construction industry is under unprecedented pressure right now. We are in a housing crisis. [Construction companies] are being told by all levels of government, by the public, [that] we need more units and we need them yesterday,” she said.
“We’re telling them to keep producing units for us but we’re going to tie one of your hands behind your back.”
Nothing Is Final, Yet
The proposed bylaw cutting back construction hours isn’t yet set in stone. Although the committee recommended the reduced hours, the full Halifax Regional Council must still debate and decide upon the law.
Council can either pass it as recommended, vote it down, or pass an amended version with slightly different details.
The proposed bylaw will likely come before council in the coming weeks.
Trevor Nichols is the Associate Editor of Huddle based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].