HRM vs. Halifax vs. Council
If they could only get out of their own way
February 10, 2010
I tuned into the HRM council meeting last night to catch the last part of the proceedings. In a pleasant surprise Councilor Linda Mosher brought forward a motion to address the Name of our Municipality. Initially I was excited about the ability to see how this topic would fly in council, I thought the worst case scenario was that council would vote down any attempt to change the name of the Municipality to Halifax or Greater Halifax as proposed. Unfortunately, there was actually a worse outcome, which played out before my eyes live on TV.
What was initially an opportunity to get some process moving on addressing our tragic lack of identity, as Dawn Sloane put it “HRM is a term that naturally pits each district against each other”, which I could not agree with more. Councilor Mosher’s initial motion seemed simple enough, if we think that we should address this issue once and for all, lets strike a committee to provide a recommendation.
From a governance perspective, if council felt that this is an issue that needs attention, then vote for action by a committee, and await its recommendations. With this mandate to address the issue, provide some guidance about the expectations of the outcome of this committee, so that the mandate is clear.
Unfortunately, what ensued was 60 minutes of mind numming, confused, inappropriate bantering about all the minutiae of the issue. Why does council seem to think that they need to try and work out the detail of every issue in the council chambers?
In the middle of it all Peter Kelly, our supposed leader, struggled with the management of the discussion and had difficulty fielding challenges about the governance of the motion. But more importantly, he did nothing to clarify the discussion, provided no guidance to the importance of this issue, and abdicated any responsibility to provide any leadership on the issue of the Brand of our municipality and its presentation to its residents and the rest of the world.
The real sad part is that it seemed most of the council was quite happy to move forward with Halifax or Greater Halifax, but could not get out of their own way to present a clearly defined motion to move it forward. So, as usual, it was put off.
Let’s hope Linda Mosher or some other councilor finds some courage and strength to get this back on the table, with a clear question and a well thought out process to address the issue, like leaders are supposed to.
Malcolm Fraser
Chair
Citizens for Halifax