By Elizabeth MacKinnon
When you're walking through downtown Halifax, there's no reason for you to be thinking about sidewalks; they are simply a truth beneath your feet.
But in the rural communities that became part of HRM through their involuntary amalgamation in 1996, the existence--or non-existence--of sidewalks has become the site of some of the most convoluted and contentious conflicts over new taxes, public safety, economic development, and active transportation.
More rural sidewalks have been in the works since at least as far back as 2014 with the passage of the active transportation priorities plan. In February of 2022, Council asked for a staff report about potential rural sidewalk sites. On February 7, 2023, they approved the staff report which listed 17 communities as contenders for sidewalks, with five listed as the most viable: Musquodoboit Harbour, Lucasville, Hubbards, Porters Lake and Upper Tantallon.
(Sheet Harbour was one of the 17, but the sidewalk there as built more than a decade ago. The East Preston sidewalk was finished while the staff report was in process).
HRM identified these communities as the top five using criteria including “being a rural growth centre in the HRM’s Regional Plan, population density, safety, equity, municipal plans, community planning and advocacy, and number of local or regional destinations.”
The municipality reached out to these communities via online survey, paper survey, emails, phone calls and in-person public meetings. The only thing they did not hear was apathy.
The strongest opposition took place in Porters Lake with over 1700 residents weighing in through surveys, phone calls, emails, and massive attendance at sessions at the Porters Lake Community Centre, which Councilor David Hendsbee described as “abusive” at a subsequent City Council meeting.
One of the principal drivers of opposition came from residents of neighborhoods well removed from the proposed sidewalks who did not want to pay the proposed flat tax that HRM proposed to fund the sidewalks.
When the Sheet Harbour sidewalks were approved in 2010, the same tax applied to the entire region. After sustained pressure from the outlying communities, HRM switched in 2018 to a three-tiered tax rate, with the core community along Highway 7 paying the highest rate, and lesser rates for people further from the core. Despite this experience in Sheet Harbour, the staff report proposed single rates for the five target communities.
Statistics in the staff report reflected the intensity of opposition in Porters Lake: “Survey responses, as outlined in Figure 2 show a strong opposition towards all components of the project. From all survey responses, 83% do not support sidewalks being added on Trunk 7 in Porters Lake, 94% do not support the area rate, and 86% do not support the preliminary area rate Boundary.”
Opposition at the heading in Musquodoboit Harbour was less verbally intense than in Porters Lake. Residents have been advocating for sidewalks in the core for decades. But there was strong opposition to HRM’s proposal to pay for the sidewalks by raising the rural tax rate to the same level as the urban rate, and for forcing more distant areas to pay the same rate as the Highway 7 core.
In the end, Council voted to bench the Porters Lake project for the next five years, giving other communities a shot to move forward. For Musquodoboit Harbour, there will be another round of public engagement to see if there is a way to get the area rate to an agreeable enough level for the benefits of sidewalks to tip the scales.
