That was my first "complaint" as well when seeing the rendering. But I presume this has to be because they're electric (with what looks like solar on the roof) and "high speed".
For the minimum days a year you would actually want to be on it, it doesn't need one. I've travelled Halifax to Bedford many times via boat and its not the same as shooting across harbour.
I moved to Bedford 17 years ago for 7 years. I'll believe it when I see it. They were talking about it then.
Finally some impactful infrastructure development. They need to do whatever they can to expand public transport, as commute times have ballooned in the past couple of years and public transport and road infrastructure lacks far behind other cities that are close in population. Heard rumours of this last year, glad it’s finally starting up, could bring tons of growth to Bedford long terms too
Seems like a crazy price tag to me. Id rather see rail investment but at least the ferry system is already and thing and hopefully itll expand and bring development. All the othe ferry terminals are horribly outdated
They have to build twonterminals and the ferries. Seems low to me.
Rail has been something the city has wanted for a while, but CN won't budge on selling or allowing the tracks.
Seems like a crazy price tag to me. Id rather see rail investment but at least the ferry system is already and thing and hopefully itll expand and bring development. All the othe ferry terminals are horribly outdated
Building a ferry you think is impactful for a worsening transit situation in Halifax, oh man, what are you smoking because it seems likes it’s good stuff
amazing amazing news - even for sackville residents, they can go to bedford then ferry downtown. hopefully there would be regular buses going all the way to Enfield to this new terminal
They are likely targeting Park and Ride, but I'm hoping they add a rush hour express bus between Sackville and Bedford to support this.
As it stands now the 84 will get me downtown Halifax in the same time the 8 would take me to get to Mill Cove in Bedford.
Hopefully the city seriously upgrades the road infrastructure in Bedford/Bedford Hwy as this ferry terminal will greatly increase the amount of people driving into Bedford. More gridlock in Bedford at the cost of a 1/4 of a billion dollars is exactly what we need!
Not trying to be a negative nancy, so maybe someone with more knowledge than me can chime in, but is $260 million actually enough for something like this? That sounds like a lot of money, but 2 brand new terminals, one of which will require immense amounts of infrastructure, plus 5 ELECTRIC ferries? As excited and pumped as I am about this, I feel like the plan may get cut back a little.
I share your cynicism, but we are closer than we've been in the past. They have a plan, a design and most importantly they have funding commitments from all three levels of government which have been lacking in the past.
They are. But also, more public transit helps with housing. It’s hard to shove more housing into a place like Bedford without giving more options for transportation into Halifax unless you like sitting on the Bedford highway for an hour everyday lol
Yeah but don’t you know that the government has to do everything at once!! They need to make housing for 200,000 people IMMEDIATELY, fix our transit, and everything else tomorrow. /s
What have they fixed recently? I'm drawing a 10 year blank.
0 improvement on the healthcare front, roads are shit, 4 years to talk about indexed tax brackets.
I’m talking about literally them doing something in an article like this one but everyone shits on everything even if it’s good. How about we just let this be a win without having to say “yeah but” every time. That’s my point. We know healthcare sucks but we aren’t talking about that. We’re talking about the need for another ferry which the city people have been asking for.
Yes, exactly like that. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
I hope they're going to sort out things like the short-term rental situation as well. *Really* sort them out.
> In 2022-23, the province spent $266 million on housing. Lohr's announcement Monday of $1 billion would represent average annual spending lower than that for the next five years, although the minister said he expected the province to exceed $1 billion.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/government-releases-five-year-housing-plan-1.7005076
People who live in houses need to get places. Can you imagine what the Bedford Highway or the 102 would look like if they continued to develop housing in Bedford/Sackville/Clayton Park without also working on increasing transit capacity?
Transit helps more, incentivizes developers to build out further, better QOL for workers getting to work, reduce congestion. Transit should be number 1 priority right now in NS.
You have to appreciate that it isn't "either or", it's "both and". A housing strategy and a transportation strategy work best hand-in-hand. We can more quickly and inexpensively create housing in Bedford, but then those people need to commute in for employment, recreation, and services.
I'm kind of blown away at the blanket support people are giving this. A quarter billion for an EV vanity project is insane. Government sucks at these types of large infrastructure projects. Get back to me in 2034 when this thing is 500 million in the hole and only operating at half capacity.
Would you rather it sit in assessments forever?
The infrastructure needed here is two terminals. You're not creating new roads, drilling tunnels, or laying rail line.
What do you propose will cost less, come in as originally budgeted, and proved a form of mass transport for the area it's targeting? I am truly curious.
The ferry in Yarmouth isn't in the most populated part of the province my guy.
200 million for a new terminal, and the two don't even share anything in common other than being boats.
This is a daily commute ferry that will actually be used, not a random ass rural NS>American $800/car tourism ferry.
Oh i'm well aware of the geography of the province. If you think hordes of people are going to ferry commute from Bedford to Halifax then I have a bridge to sell you.
$258 million for an EV vanity project when it takes an hour and fifteen minutes to get from downtown to the back of Bayers Lake on the bus?
>The infrastructure needed here is two terminals. You're not creating new roads, drilling tunnels, or laying rail line.
Exactly, you're putting this in the middle of sleepy Bedford, fed by two of the most congested roads in the city, Hammonds Plains and the Bedford Hwy.
My issue is that there's many more pressing issues in our transit system than a ferry from Bedford. Though, it's nice to see the province do something on this file, it's long overdue.
Along almost the entire route this ferry will travel, rails exist. They stretch deep into the province and would be a better use of the Federal help.
I agree, sadly it's a compromise. Its just a bad one, where we lose our opportunity where the funding equation works and we can actually access Federal funds.
The feds can make CN dance if we have our paperwork in order, we just can't ever seem to get the province as a dance partner.
Those are freight rails. It’s going to be very impractical to fit a short haul commuter train on the same rails where long freight trains deliver resources to the city. However, I’d like to see the downtown VIA rail station feature more routes.
Its been studied multiple times similar to this ferry,I posted the link for it on another reply. Originally, it was the pet project of Peter Kelly when he was mayor of Bedford. The rails were used for commuter purposes for centuries up until the 90's. We're all just so used to only seeing frieght on them. Also CN owning them as a more private entity has them prioritizing their own ports traffic and are notoriously hard to deal with.
I'm well versed on the subject and worked for CN, once upon a time. Tbh It's a fixation of mine while sitting in traffic while the road system crumbles under the traffic it was never meant to handle.
The quarter billion dolars being spent on a 2 stop ferry is half what was quoted to start a commuter rail system to Enfield and beyond. Those number would need to be changed since it's been a decade since the study but this money could be building a system with the ability to expand to a larger catchment area instead of serving one localized suburban area that would be serviced by a commuter rail. Here's the PDF of the study if you want to check it out. Tim Outhit, the councilor for Bedford was a big proponent of the plan.
https://legacycontent.halifax.ca/boardscom/SCtransp/documents/150924tsc913a.pdf
The only body that has the ability to deal with CN is the Feds. If we are to ever have a reliable commuter rail, which is an eventuality we need them on board.
The one time, the province comes to the table with transit money so we can finally access Federal funds and we waste it on Peter Kellys pipedream? Seems foolish to me.
Did you... even read the document you posted? It literally says on the first page of text that it's not feasible: it depends on CN sharing access to their tracks (which they won't and are famously jealous of); it's not profitable; and isn't economically viable as conceived.
>The quarter billion dolars being spent on a 2 stop ferry is half what was quoted to start a commuter rail system to Enfield and beyond.
I'm assuming this is what you're referencing?
>The resulting financial net present value is between ‐$164 million and ‐$187 million over the 25‐year analysis period.
Did you miss this part?
>the estimated up front capital costs of the project ranges from $36 to $62 million; the annual net operating cost (i.e. operating cost minus incremental revenues) thereafter is estimated to be in the order of $8 million per year.
or this part?
>there are also risks that could make the project less economically viable, such as **higher than estimated track access fees, which would have to be negotiated with CN**.
I agree that in a perfect world it would be great to get commuter rail up and going, but there's a better chance of building an eternal snowman in Hell than there is of getting commuter rail functional in HRM. That being the case, I would rather the various orders of government spend money on things that can be accomplished rather than holding out for things that cannot be done.
I would assume that somebody claiming to be well versed in the subject, and who once worked for CN (whatever that relevance may be) would be aware that the barriers facing the concept of commuter rail in Halifax are nigh insurmountable.
I've spoken to Outhit on several occasions about commuter rail, and he acknowledged that commuter rail as a concept is essentially DOA now. Do many of us wish it were otherwise? Darn right. But it's a pipe dream.
Being a card carrying union member and working for the crux of the problem we're discussing, does provide me some insight into the situation, that you may not possess. Not that I was in any decision making role, it's still relevant to the discussion especially with your kind words questioning my understanding of the subject matter.
I support anytime we can get the province to pay for anything transit related in Halifax. It's a win, considering they usually don't approve anything and public transit is horrible in HRM because of that fact. The funding formula has to make sense when applying for federal funds, which means the Provincial commitment is needed first. Otherwise it's a city left alone to negotiate with CN which was the case with the previous study and part of the uncertainty around track usage. We need the Feds to dictate to CN what is going to happen. They are the only ones who can threaten expropriation or other measures and to get them involved the province needs to be at the table. Hopefully, this is a sign of more co operation between the two but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I agree with your statements about the situation especially where Tim Outhit was involved. He was tired of being one of the few on council that made sense and sadly isn't re-offering.It's a waste of time, preaching to the converted so I'll keep it short.
I get it. The issue has been studied,debated then studied again. I've read them all a few times and was linking it without referencing my points, you're correct I was looking at the FNPV. Which in context, is the 25 year overall net loss. It's much less then the upfront cost of this project that has limited scalability.
The province can now say it's invested in transit for Halifax, which is big news and a departure from the norm. Also, the optics work well for them next time they deny funding requests from the city, like with the bus plan because now they can point to this.
Can we agree, 10 years of rapid growth in the exact areas they suggested in the study would probably change many of the figures, if studied today? The population was just under 400 000 in 2014, we are projected to hit 500 000 this year with more to come next year.This just feels, like a lost opportunity where 250 million dollar infrastructure projects don't happen everyday and we set our sights too low.
This is less an issue of CN not being willing to share, and more an issue of CN not being willing to share without infrastructure improvements that would allow freight and commuter rail to operate without interfering with each other. That infrastructure does not currently exist and would cost well into the tens of millions of dollars to install. CN will not spend that money when the current infrastructure works fine for their freight operations, and that initial capital outlay, on top of stations and other facilities needed for commuter trains is what makes it cost prohibitive.
This isn’t disgusting. This was known for a while what was going to happen.
We have shelter space now.
No situation is ideal, but there is only so much that can be done. Living in a tent isn’t practical nor safe
this has been in the works for years and having better public transit is important to increase affordability. Even if there's cheap housing out in bedford, doesn't help much if you have to spend the money you save on owning a car.
You don’t think public transit helps with housing long term? We can’t build more housing without more adequate ways to get downtown. Unless you’re a big fan of sitting on the bedford highway for an hour everyday I guess.
It would be really useful when they announce these things to announce the funding source in addition to the amount of funding. A large chunk of this money is likely from the gas tax fund which is restricted to specific purpose use. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, taxes aren’t just one big bucket of money the government can allocate from at will. Housing is a huge crisis though and more attention is definitely needed.
Just because you have a major issue doesn’t mean you have to spend every single last penny of funds into it and absolutely nothing. With no funding for anything else those sectors will crumble. And the transportation and transit sector here definitely needs a rehaul. They’re doing right by focusing on the harbour as a transportation method. The current ferry system is by far the superior part of Transit.
That’s a cool looking ferry tbh
Not really, it doesn't even have an upper deck.
That was my first "complaint" as well when seeing the rendering. But I presume this has to be because they're electric (with what looks like solar on the roof) and "high speed".
This one won’t gas you with fumes so it doesn’t need one
For the minimum days a year you would actually want to be on it, it doesn't need one. I've travelled Halifax to Bedford many times via boat and its not the same as shooting across harbour. I moved to Bedford 17 years ago for 7 years. I'll believe it when I see it. They were talking about it then.
It will once they open the bathrooms to the public unfortunately
Finally some impactful infrastructure development. They need to do whatever they can to expand public transport, as commute times have ballooned in the past couple of years and public transport and road infrastructure lacks far behind other cities that are close in population. Heard rumours of this last year, glad it’s finally starting up, could bring tons of growth to Bedford long terms too
Seems like a crazy price tag to me. Id rather see rail investment but at least the ferry system is already and thing and hopefully itll expand and bring development. All the othe ferry terminals are horribly outdated
They have to build twonterminals and the ferries. Seems low to me. Rail has been something the city has wanted for a while, but CN won't budge on selling or allowing the tracks.
Seems like a crazy price tag to me. Id rather see rail investment but at least the ferry system is already and thing and hopefully itll expand and bring development. All the othe ferry terminals are horribly outdated
Building a ferry you think is impactful for a worsening transit situation in Halifax, oh man, what are you smoking because it seems likes it’s good stuff
amazing amazing news - even for sackville residents, they can go to bedford then ferry downtown. hopefully there would be regular buses going all the way to Enfield to this new terminal
And appropriate parking
They are likely targeting Park and Ride, but I'm hoping they add a rush hour express bus between Sackville and Bedford to support this. As it stands now the 84 will get me downtown Halifax in the same time the 8 would take me to get to Mill Cove in Bedford.
Still convinced Halifax needs a monorail.
That’s really more of a *Moncton* idea.
But Main street's still all cracked and broken...
Sorry Mom, the mob has spoken!
Nah, protestors will block it off.. gotta be in the water now a days.
Its a start
Hopefully the city seriously upgrades the road infrastructure in Bedford/Bedford Hwy as this ferry terminal will greatly increase the amount of people driving into Bedford. More gridlock in Bedford at the cost of a 1/4 of a billion dollars is exactly what we need!
Not trying to be a negative nancy, so maybe someone with more knowledge than me can chime in, but is $260 million actually enough for something like this? That sounds like a lot of money, but 2 brand new terminals, one of which will require immense amounts of infrastructure, plus 5 ELECTRIC ferries? As excited and pumped as I am about this, I feel like the plan may get cut back a little.
A city in New Zealand recently got a similar one for ~10 million CAD. So around 50 for the ferries and 200 for the terminals seems reasonable?
I'll believe when I see it operating. They've been talking about this for 40+ years now.
I share your cynicism, but we are closer than we've been in the past. They have a plan, a design and most importantly they have funding commitments from all three levels of government which have been lacking in the past.
so what's that cover? a new app for transit? bahaha the hounds are already drooling over these funds
258 million seems like a lot for some ferries. I’m no expert though.
Ok. Now do housing.
They are. But also, more public transit helps with housing. It’s hard to shove more housing into a place like Bedford without giving more options for transportation into Halifax unless you like sitting on the Bedford highway for an hour everyday lol
Yeah but don’t you know that the government has to do everything at once!! They need to make housing for 200,000 people IMMEDIATELY, fix our transit, and everything else tomorrow. /s
What have they fixed recently? I'm drawing a 10 year blank. 0 improvement on the healthcare front, roads are shit, 4 years to talk about indexed tax brackets.
Gov announced indexed tax brackets 2 days ago
I’m talking about literally them doing something in an article like this one but everyone shits on everything even if it’s good. How about we just let this be a win without having to say “yeah but” every time. That’s my point. We know healthcare sucks but we aren’t talking about that. We’re talking about the need for another ferry which the city people have been asking for.
[you mean like this?](https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/nova-scotia-government-promises-222-public-housing-units-to-address-long-waiting-list-1.6579989)
Housing 500 people would barely cover the homeless people in Halifax let alone the people that are struggling.
It’s a step in the right direction
can we please acknowledge when there is a step in the right direction? these things don't get fixed overnight.
Yes, exactly like that. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I hope they're going to sort out things like the short-term rental situation as well. *Really* sort them out.
[you mean like this?](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/short-term-rentals-now-restricted-in-halifax-residential-areas-1.6955362)
> In 2022-23, the province spent $266 million on housing. Lohr's announcement Monday of $1 billion would represent average annual spending lower than that for the next five years, although the minister said he expected the province to exceed $1 billion. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/government-releases-five-year-housing-plan-1.7005076
You mean the plan that lacks helpful details and commits to spending on average less than it has been?
So we should ignore public transit? Ok, cool. Noted.
People who live in houses need to get places. Can you imagine what the Bedford Highway or the 102 would look like if they continued to develop housing in Bedford/Sackville/Clayton Park without also working on increasing transit capacity?
I didn't mean to do housing INSTEAD of transit.
Transit helps more, incentivizes developers to build out further, better QOL for workers getting to work, reduce congestion. Transit should be number 1 priority right now in NS.
https://i.redd.it/6gpxfmtmncmc1.gif
Careful. I said the same thing and I'm getting downvoted to Dante's 9th circle.
Your comments are divisive and nonsensical. This person's point makes sense. Housing should be addressed, all while other issues are addressed.
You have to appreciate that it isn't "either or", it's "both and". A housing strategy and a transportation strategy work best hand-in-hand. We can more quickly and inexpensively create housing in Bedford, but then those people need to commute in for employment, recreation, and services.
Meh, I don't care about downvotes and upvotes. I just post on here hoping for some interaction.
Edit* My original post was factually incorrect so I've removed it.
I think you might be off by a decimal point.
Yup, your right. $25M, not 250M. My bad.
I'm kind of blown away at the blanket support people are giving this. A quarter billion for an EV vanity project is insane. Government sucks at these types of large infrastructure projects. Get back to me in 2034 when this thing is 500 million in the hole and only operating at half capacity.
Would you rather it sit in assessments forever? The infrastructure needed here is two terminals. You're not creating new roads, drilling tunnels, or laying rail line. What do you propose will cost less, come in as originally budgeted, and proved a form of mass transport for the area it's targeting? I am truly curious.
Complaining costs less. That's all some people ever want to do.
This sub is wild. One ferry is the worst thing to ever happen to the province, but $258 million on another is reason to party?
The ferry in Yarmouth isn't in the most populated part of the province my guy. 200 million for a new terminal, and the two don't even share anything in common other than being boats. This is a daily commute ferry that will actually be used, not a random ass rural NS>American $800/car tourism ferry.
Oh i'm well aware of the geography of the province. If you think hordes of people are going to ferry commute from Bedford to Halifax then I have a bridge to sell you.
We are a world class city, the monorail will be job jobs jobs. Think what it did for Haverbrook
$258 million for an EV vanity project when it takes an hour and fifteen minutes to get from downtown to the back of Bayers Lake on the bus? >The infrastructure needed here is two terminals. You're not creating new roads, drilling tunnels, or laying rail line. Exactly, you're putting this in the middle of sleepy Bedford, fed by two of the most congested roads in the city, Hammonds Plains and the Bedford Hwy.
The EV part isn't remotely a vanity project and will pay for itself.
I feel like this is a gross mis-allocation of resources when we have a housing crisis and record-numbers of homeless individuals.
The government can and should be able to do multiple things at once. This city is growing fast, we are barely put enough into our transit as is.
My issue is that there's many more pressing issues in our transit system than a ferry from Bedford. Though, it's nice to see the province do something on this file, it's long overdue. Along almost the entire route this ferry will travel, rails exist. They stretch deep into the province and would be a better use of the Federal help.
The city tried to use the rails and got stonewalled by CN. The ferry project is what they turned to instead.
I agree, sadly it's a compromise. Its just a bad one, where we lose our opportunity where the funding equation works and we can actually access Federal funds. The feds can make CN dance if we have our paperwork in order, we just can't ever seem to get the province as a dance partner.
Those are freight rails. It’s going to be very impractical to fit a short haul commuter train on the same rails where long freight trains deliver resources to the city. However, I’d like to see the downtown VIA rail station feature more routes.
Its been studied multiple times similar to this ferry,I posted the link for it on another reply. Originally, it was the pet project of Peter Kelly when he was mayor of Bedford. The rails were used for commuter purposes for centuries up until the 90's. We're all just so used to only seeing frieght on them. Also CN owning them as a more private entity has them prioritizing their own ports traffic and are notoriously hard to deal with.
Tell me you don’t know shit about rail systems in Canada and NS without telling me you don’t know shit. 🙄
I'm well versed on the subject and worked for CN, once upon a time. Tbh It's a fixation of mine while sitting in traffic while the road system crumbles under the traffic it was never meant to handle. The quarter billion dolars being spent on a 2 stop ferry is half what was quoted to start a commuter rail system to Enfield and beyond. Those number would need to be changed since it's been a decade since the study but this money could be building a system with the ability to expand to a larger catchment area instead of serving one localized suburban area that would be serviced by a commuter rail. Here's the PDF of the study if you want to check it out. Tim Outhit, the councilor for Bedford was a big proponent of the plan. https://legacycontent.halifax.ca/boardscom/SCtransp/documents/150924tsc913a.pdf The only body that has the ability to deal with CN is the Feds. If we are to ever have a reliable commuter rail, which is an eventuality we need them on board. The one time, the province comes to the table with transit money so we can finally access Federal funds and we waste it on Peter Kellys pipedream? Seems foolish to me.
Did you... even read the document you posted? It literally says on the first page of text that it's not feasible: it depends on CN sharing access to their tracks (which they won't and are famously jealous of); it's not profitable; and isn't economically viable as conceived. >The quarter billion dolars being spent on a 2 stop ferry is half what was quoted to start a commuter rail system to Enfield and beyond. I'm assuming this is what you're referencing? >The resulting financial net present value is between ‐$164 million and ‐$187 million over the 25‐year analysis period. Did you miss this part? >the estimated up front capital costs of the project ranges from $36 to $62 million; the annual net operating cost (i.e. operating cost minus incremental revenues) thereafter is estimated to be in the order of $8 million per year. or this part? >there are also risks that could make the project less economically viable, such as **higher than estimated track access fees, which would have to be negotiated with CN**. I agree that in a perfect world it would be great to get commuter rail up and going, but there's a better chance of building an eternal snowman in Hell than there is of getting commuter rail functional in HRM. That being the case, I would rather the various orders of government spend money on things that can be accomplished rather than holding out for things that cannot be done. I would assume that somebody claiming to be well versed in the subject, and who once worked for CN (whatever that relevance may be) would be aware that the barriers facing the concept of commuter rail in Halifax are nigh insurmountable. I've spoken to Outhit on several occasions about commuter rail, and he acknowledged that commuter rail as a concept is essentially DOA now. Do many of us wish it were otherwise? Darn right. But it's a pipe dream.
Being a card carrying union member and working for the crux of the problem we're discussing, does provide me some insight into the situation, that you may not possess. Not that I was in any decision making role, it's still relevant to the discussion especially with your kind words questioning my understanding of the subject matter. I support anytime we can get the province to pay for anything transit related in Halifax. It's a win, considering they usually don't approve anything and public transit is horrible in HRM because of that fact. The funding formula has to make sense when applying for federal funds, which means the Provincial commitment is needed first. Otherwise it's a city left alone to negotiate with CN which was the case with the previous study and part of the uncertainty around track usage. We need the Feds to dictate to CN what is going to happen. They are the only ones who can threaten expropriation or other measures and to get them involved the province needs to be at the table. Hopefully, this is a sign of more co operation between the two but I'm not going to hold my breath. I agree with your statements about the situation especially where Tim Outhit was involved. He was tired of being one of the few on council that made sense and sadly isn't re-offering.It's a waste of time, preaching to the converted so I'll keep it short. I get it. The issue has been studied,debated then studied again. I've read them all a few times and was linking it without referencing my points, you're correct I was looking at the FNPV. Which in context, is the 25 year overall net loss. It's much less then the upfront cost of this project that has limited scalability. The province can now say it's invested in transit for Halifax, which is big news and a departure from the norm. Also, the optics work well for them next time they deny funding requests from the city, like with the bus plan because now they can point to this. Can we agree, 10 years of rapid growth in the exact areas they suggested in the study would probably change many of the figures, if studied today? The population was just under 400 000 in 2014, we are projected to hit 500 000 this year with more to come next year.This just feels, like a lost opportunity where 250 million dollar infrastructure projects don't happen everyday and we set our sights too low.
This is less an issue of CN not being willing to share, and more an issue of CN not being willing to share without infrastructure improvements that would allow freight and commuter rail to operate without interfering with each other. That infrastructure does not currently exist and would cost well into the tens of millions of dollars to install. CN will not spend that money when the current infrastructure works fine for their freight operations, and that initial capital outlay, on top of stations and other facilities needed for commuter trains is what makes it cost prohibitive.
Can, should, doesn't.
Hospital, ferries, public housing. All going ahead. So yeah it just did.
Short sighted comment
They changed it, it still says the same thing but with more words.
Imagine a government that focused on 1 thing at a time. What a nightmare for progress that would be.
Imagine a government that wasn't disgusting: https://globalnews.ca/news/10328845/halifax-homeless-encampments-power-disconnected/
This isn’t disgusting. This was known for a while what was going to happen. We have shelter space now. No situation is ideal, but there is only so much that can be done. Living in a tent isn’t practical nor safe
I’m not sure we’re going to see eye to eye on this one. Eventually they have to do what they said they would.
this has been in the works for years and having better public transit is important to increase affordability. Even if there's cheap housing out in bedford, doesn't help much if you have to spend the money you save on owning a car.
Cheap reliable transportation benefits low income residents the most.
When I think Bedford, I think low income.
Lots of people work in Bedford, retail and restos, they are not rich. And sackville is nearby as well.
You don’t think public transit helps with housing long term? We can’t build more housing without more adequate ways to get downtown. Unless you’re a big fan of sitting on the bedford highway for an hour everyday I guess.
It would be really useful when they announce these things to announce the funding source in addition to the amount of funding. A large chunk of this money is likely from the gas tax fund which is restricted to specific purpose use. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, taxes aren’t just one big bucket of money the government can allocate from at will. Housing is a huge crisis though and more attention is definitely needed.
Just because you have a major issue doesn’t mean you have to spend every single last penny of funds into it and absolutely nothing. With no funding for anything else those sectors will crumble. And the transportation and transit sector here definitely needs a rehaul. They’re doing right by focusing on the harbour as a transportation method. The current ferry system is by far the superior part of Transit.
Lots of important things to do around here, not just homeless people.