Halifax Mayor Addresses Growth and Housing Challenges, Nine Years After Ivany Report
HALIFAX – It’s been nearly a decade since the Ivany Report warned Nova Scotians that if things didn’t change quickly, the province would continue to see population decline and the province’s population get steadily older.
The warnings weren’t just for the rural parts of Nova Scotia. In 2014, when the report was published, Halifax also struggled to convince young, working-aged adults to stay instead of moving to more prosperous provinces.
The Ivany report called for 19 areas that needed immediate change, including several goals on immigration and population retention.
During his annual State of the Municipality speech on April 5, Halifax Mayor Mike Savage reflected on the Ivany report and how different Halifax is now. The city grew by more than 20,000 people last year, making it the second-fastest-growing city in Canada.
The problems facing the city today are the exact opposite of those listed a decade ago in the Ivany report. Now, people are concerned that Halifax can’t handle the rapid growth.
“[The report] was a sobering wake-up call,” Savage said in his speech. “It demanded a radical rethinking of the province’s economy. We were headed to what was deemed an irreversible downward spiral. While a leader in Atlantic Canada, Halifax was nonetheless sluggish as well by comparison to other large cities. We were struggling with a stagnant population.”
The Mayor even joked about Alberta spending money on advertisements in the region, trying to convince people to move out west.
“In 2014, we lost over 1,000 working-aged people, but look at us now. I love Alberta; keep spending money on those ads, but people like it here.”
Savage also noted that Halifax is a city that has found the fountain of youth. A lot of young people are moving here and graduate students are staying for employment. Last year, said the mayor, the average age in the city was 39.
“Remember the demographic crisis we had a decade ago?” Savage asked rhetorically. “We now see more cultures represented. This is how it should be in a modern, vibrant, city. Halifax accounted for over 72 per cent of the growth of the provincial population last year, and we now make up 47 per cent of the population.”
Although Savage touted Halifax’s rapid growth, he also had to acknowledge the major hardship that comes with such change. The city, like many others nationally and globally, is in the midst of a housing crisis.
Housing is ultimately a provincial responsibility, but Savage conceded that the municipality still has a role to play, especially when it comes to working with developers. In his speech, Savage noted that the wait time for permits for approved residential developments has been reduced from 48 to 35 days. For other projects, it has gone from 82 days to 52.
In terms of major developments, Savage took the time to tout the importance of the massive Cogswell District Project. Once completed, the Cogswell interchange will be replaced with a new, 16-acre district that will house 2,500 people. There will also be room for commercial space.
“We will reunite communities here in Cogswell, long separated by concrete,” said Savage, who showed a time-lapse video to the crowd of a ramp at Cogswell being taken down.
But even if the permitting process has sped up, there are still challenges facing Halifax that has hampered getting housing faster. About 4,300 units have been approved but haven’t started being built yet. A lot of that, according to Savage, is due to labour shortages, supply chain issues, and other costs.
Savage also took time in his 30-minute speech to note another challenge facing Halifax and other cities: the need to invest in transitioning to a greener economy and infrastructure. Savage informed the audience that electric buses will start hitting the road this year and the municipality is retrofitting older buildings with greener technology like solar panels.
The Mayor also noted that this year’s budget process has been tough, but argued the city, over the years, has done well managing the debt that will be passed on to future taxpayers.
“Every single Canadian owns more than $35,000 of the federal debt, and $15,000 to the provincial debt. What about HRM? It’s about $1,300 per household. And we are the ones with the bulk of the infrastructure.”
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].