On April 26th, 1996 the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) Council passed a motion directing its staff to develop plans for a "consensus symposium" to contribute to the "general design for an approach to harbour clean-up".
One of the first steps in planning the Symposium was to appoint two co-chairs from the wider community, Prof. Ray Coté, Director of the School of Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University, and Ms. Lesley Griffiths of Griffiths Muecke Associates. HRM staff also conducted focus group meetings with key stakeholder representatives prior to the event to identify appropriate goals and approaches for the symposium.
Following these initial steps the co-chairs and HRM staff set out goals and objectives for the Harbour Solutions Symposium. The overall goal was to put the Harbour Cleanup Project back on track . The specific objectives were to:
The Symposium was held at the Student Union Building at Dalhousie University on November 8th and 9th, 1996. It was attended by some 170 participants, including representatives of the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government, the business community, community organizations, the engineering and consulting professions, environmental groups, harbour users, and other interest groups. (See Appendix 1 for a list of participants).
In opening the Symposium, HRM Mayor Walter Fitzgerald expressed the commitment of the HRM Council to taking direct action in the near future to put in place an effective and affordable waste water management system for Halifax Harbour. He asked the Symposium participants to give the Council clear and realistic proposals on ways and means to achieve this goal.
The Symposium then proceeded to work though a process with the following six steps:
1. Information sharing;
2. Identification of decision issues;
3. Drafting of principles and objectives;
4. Discussion and debate;
5. Revision of the principles and objectives and identification of issues where more research and consultation are needed;
6. Identification of implementation steps.
Information sharing was accomplished through distribution of a background document which provided historical perspectives on harbour clean-up efforts, and through panel presentations by the following people:
Summaries of these presentations are included in this report.
Following this panel the participants divided into eight small groups with facilitators to develop questions for the panel and to identify their most pressing concerns and issues with regard to the development of the waste water management system. In a second plenary session the groups posed the questions of greatest concern to them to an expanded panel.
In a second round of small group sessions the participants set out practical objectives for a new waste water management system and principles to govern decision-making on financial, technical and site selection issues.
The eight small groups took quite different approaches to this task, some concentrating on decision-making and public participation processes, and others going into detail on technical or financial issues. The Symposium facilitation team then went through the small group reports to draw out the points of shared concern and the common approaches, and to identify areas where there seemed to be little agreement and where further planning and research would therefore be needed.
The Symposium co-chairs were then able to present to plenary a draft list of 14 points of apparent agreement on principles and objectives for harbour clean-up, and then spelled out the additional areas where more research and consultation beyond the Symposium would be required.
In a third small group session, the participants worked through the 14 points and suggested ways to improve them or to sharpen their focus. They also discussed timetable, public participation and financial issues.
As a result of these deliberations, the draft set of 14 principles and objectives was developed into the following 12 "general directions" for the development of a comprehensive waste water management system in Halifax Harbour.
The following were areas where the Symposium participants did not have common views, and where more research and public consultation would therefore be needed:
At the close of the Symposium these points were presented to a plenary session with comments by the co-chairs. The floor was then opened for discussion, and there were indications that the participants were satisfied with the list of 12 points as a basis for moving forward with the next steps in the development of the waste water management system.
Following this the facilitators summarized the more detailed proposals from each of the eight small groups on timetable, consultation strategies and funding options for implementation of the new waste water management system. As well there was a report from a special voluntary group which met during the Symposium to discuss Herring Cove/Mainland South issues. These reports along with the results of the earlier small group sessions are included in the body of this report. They contain valuable insights and ideas for planning further consultations and the implementation process.
The Symposium was brought to a conclusion by HRM Deputy Mayor Jack Greenough, Ken Meech, HRM Chief Administrative Officer, and Valerie Spencer, HRM Commissioner of Policy and Planning. They expressed satisfaction with the results of the Symposium and committed themselves to moving forward with planning and implementation as soon as possible. They also thanked the participants for their valuable contributions to the planning process, and expressed confidence that their ideas and concerns would have a significant impact on the development of a comprehensive waste water management system for Halifax Harbour.
