News Release

Councillors Call on Province to Enshrine Sportsplex Expansion, Redefine Boundaries in Dartmouth Common Bill

(May 11, 2011) HRM Councillors Gloria McCluskey, Jim Smith and Bill Karsten, on behalf of Regional Council, are urging the provincial government today to include important amendments to the Premier’s Dartmouth Common legislation or delay passage of change to the Halifax Charter on which HRM was not consulted.

While HRM Council concurred last night with the underlying premise of the bill - to protect and preserve the Dartmouth Common area - they believe the proposed HRM Charter amendment is too restrictive in nature and ties the hands of Council and its citizens on necessary improvements to the area. They also note that by giving final approval on any change to Common land to Cabinet, decision-making for this public land could become unnecessarily politicized.

Councillor McCluskey and Councillor Bill Karsten presented Council’s concerns today (May 11) before the Law Amendments Committee, bringing to the attention of the all-party committee the importance of changes requested through a motion of Council last night (May 10) before the bill proceeds any further. Chief amongst those concerns is questioning the new boundary definition of the Common.

“No one on HRM Council disagrees with the importance of preserving Common land”, Coun. McCluskey said. “But changing the boundaries to include an area that is key to densifying the downtown area and ignoring federal and provincial lands that should be included is not progress, it’s a step backwards.”
Councillor Karsten said HRM was dismayed that the government bill, which reaches into municipal decision-making, did not include HRM at the table when it was drafted so that some of these concerns could have been addressed before the bill came to the legislature.

Deputy Mayor and Dartmouth Councillor Jim Smith, who introduced the motion of Council to seek changes to the bill, said a key attraction and community resource in the area around the Common is the Dartmouth Sportsplex.
“This centre is a hub of activity for Downtown Dartmouth and we are concerned that these expansion plans will be compromised by the scope of this bill as currently written,” Deputy Mayor Smith said.

The councillors asked for some time to talk further on mutually-acceptable changes instead of rushing the bill through the remaining stages of approval.

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Contacts:

HRM District 5 Councillor Gloria McCluskey
490-7033

HRM District 9 Councillor Jim Smith
490-4692

HRM District 7 Councillor Bill Karsten
490-7032

Shaune MacKinlay
Manager, Public Affairs
Halifax Regional Municipality
490-6531