Our second council meeting of 2026 was held on Tuesday, 27 January.
The full meeting agenda, reports and video recording are linked below, as are the draft Minutes.
Halifax Regional Council – January 27, 2026
January 27, 2026 Regional Council Draft Minutes
Items most relevant to District 7 are highlighted below:
10.2 First Reading Proposed By-law T-1008, Respecting the Regulation of Taxis, Accessible Taxis, Limousines and Transportation Network Companies
“Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council give First Reading to By-law T-1008, Amending By-law T-1000, the Halifax Regional Municipality Taxi, Limousine and Transportation Network Companies By-law, as set out in Attachment 2 to the staff report dated November 25, 2025.”
Staff recommended licensing TNC (Uber, Lyft etc.) drivers with HRM (rather than through the ride share companies they work for) to better align with the process for taxi drivers, and for added public safety (a direct link to driver qualifications, rather than relying on the TNCs). The cost to drivers would be a one-time fee of $35 and a $100 fee every two years, which I do not find to be excessive. Some council members felt that we have not exercised all of our regulatory options under the current regulatory model, and that there is room for more collaboration with TNC companies before changing our regulatory model.
This motion failed 5 – 11. I voted Yes.
Next, Mayor Fillmore moved the following:
“THAT Halifax Regional Council:
1. Give First Reading to Amending By-law T-1008, Amending By-law T-1000, the Halifax Regional Municipality Taxi, Limousine and Transportation
Network Companies By-law, as set out in Attachment 2 to the supplemental staff report dated January 23, 2026; and
2. Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to prepare a staff report with input from a temporary working committee composed of representatives from the Halifax Regional Municipality TNC Operators, and Taxi industry to review the Municipality’s public policy objectives against the best practices from across Canada, with a particular focus on training, audit, approaches to licensure, and compliance models used by municipal and provincial regulators.”
Item one was necessary for move forward with the fare modernization portion of the staff report (08 December 2025), and item two is the path forward because the staff motion failed due to the TNC Licensing recommendation debate.
This motion passed 14 – 2. I voted Yes.
12.1.1 Case HRTG-2025-02222: Request to Include 1530 Oxford Street, Halifax in the Registry of Heritage Properties for the Halifax Regional Municipality
“Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council approve the request to include 1530 Oxford Street, Halifax, in the Registry of Heritage Property for the Halifax Regional Municipality, as shown on Map 1 of the staff report dated November 5, 2025, as a municipal heritage property under the Heritage Property Act.”
This motion passed unanimously.
12.2.1 Noise Exemption Request – Dalhousie Sno-Fest 2026
“Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council approve the Dalhousie Student Union’s Sno-Fest 2026 application for an exemption from the provisions of the Noise By-law pursuant to the contents of the staff report dated January 20, 2026, and any matters raised at the public hearing.”
Noise bylaw exemption requests always make me a little nervous, so I hope this event is great fun for Dal students and not too disruptive for other residents nearby. The event is Thursday, 05 February from 7 pm until midnight in the quad (but the amplified sound will end at 11 pm). Teardown will happen from 11 pm to midnight as the crowd disperses. This gathering is aligned with the Munro Day holiday.
This motion passed unanimously.
15.1.7 AAA Bicycle Network Capital Projects: 2026/27 & 2027/28 Planned Construction
“Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council direct the Chief Administrative Officer to:
1. initiate functional planning for the three alternatives to the All Ages and Abilities (AAA) bikeway network capital projects as described in the Discussion section of the staff report dated January 21, 2025 and subject to approval of the associated costs in the 2026/27 capital budget, return to Regional Council with a recommended approach to implementation of these three alternatives; and,
2. pursue federal and provincial funding opportunities for Council-approved AAA bikeway network projects whenever application intakes are announced.”
a. Novalea Drive Multi-Use Pathway (MUP)
b. Victoria Road & Highfield Park Drive Bikeways
c. Welsford Street Bikeway”
This staff report came to council as a result of Councillor Mancini’s motion in June to look for cost savings in the build out of our AAA cycling network (item 16.1):
19 & 24 June 2025 HRM Council Meetings: Regional Plan, Bike Lanes, Heavy Vehicles, Vehicle Noise
Staff recommended implementing a tactical bike lane on Novalea Drive rather than replacing the sidewalk with a multiuse path ($966 000 savings), a different route using local street bikeways (LSB) instead of protected bikeways on Victoria Road and Highfield Park Drive ($3 064 000 savings) and a LSB or tactical bikeway rather than a raised bikeway on Welsford ($750 000 savings).
I’m not sure that these “savings” are worth all the redesign, report writing, council debate and worst of all: triggering people who disagree with spending any money at all on cycling infrastructure. During the Morris Street saga, I heard from people who felt a rise in aggression by drivers against them when they tried to get from point A to B by bicycle.
To look on the bright side, there are no associated delays with implementing the alternatives (a) and (c), and $1.7M in capital budget spending will be saved. Implementing infrastructure tactically is a good idea, as if the design does not work as well as envisioned, it can be changed before permanent infrastructure is installed.
Council decided not to change course on the Victoria Road & Highfield Park Drive Bikeways, because Councillor Austin convinced us that that is where all of the people live (and will live in the future with upzoning), so diverting to LSBs that offer no separation from vehicular traffic and are not connected to this neighbourhood would not be money well spent.
We voted separately on the three projects:
a) Novalea passed 10 – 6. I voted Yes.
b) Victoria Road & Highfield Park Drive failed 5 – 11. I voted No.
c) Welsford passed 12 – 4. I voted Yes.
18.2 Councillor White – Residents vs Citizens in HRM Mission Statement
“THAT Halifax Regional Council:
1. Waive Section 17 of Administrative Order One, requiring a staff report from the Chief Administrative Officer; and
2. direct the CAO to modify the wording of the HRM Mission statement in the 2026 – 2030 Strategic Plan to replace “our citizens” with “residents”:
Currently: “We take pride in providing high-quality public service to benefit our citizens.”
Revised: “We take pride in providing high-quality public service to benefit residents.”
I noticed this inconsistency when reviewing documents related to the hiring process for our next CAO. The purpose of the motion is to align the wording of the 2026 – 2030 HRM strategic plan mission statement with the rest of the approved document to be a more inclusive statement. The Strategic plan refers to “residents” or “all residents”. It does not use the word “citizens” nor the phrase “our residents”.
This motion passed unanimously.