Our eleventh council meeting of 2026 was held on Tuesday, 16 June 2026.
The full meeting agenda, reports and video recording are linked below, as well as the draft Minutes.
Halifax Regional Council – June 16, 2026
June 16, 2026 Regional Council Draft Minutes | Halifax.ca
Items most relevant to District 7 are highlighted below.
15.1.4 MPSA-2025-02020 – Amendments to the Regional Centre Secondary Municipal Planning Strategy and Regional Centre Land Use By-law for 1528 Queen Street, Halifax (PID 00077313)
(Staff) “Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council give First Reading to consider the proposed amendments to the Regional Centre Secondary Municipal Planning Strategy and Regional Centre Land Use By-law, as set out in Attachments A and B of the staff report dated June 8, 2026, to reduce the required minimum setback from side lot lines above the streetwall height to 0.0 metres at 1528 Queen St, Halifax (PID 00077313) and schedule a public hearing.”
This is for the new build replacing the jellybean houses on Queen Street. This motion passed on the consent agenda.
15.1.6 Proposed Amendments to Administrative Order SC-110, Respecting Closure of Parcels Within the Cogswell District Right Of Way Cogswell District, Halifax
(Staff) “Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council:
1. Formally accept and open the street right-of-way within Parcels CI-3, CI-5A, CI-5B, CI-6, CI-8, CI-9, CI-10, CI-11 and CI-12A, as shown in Attachment A of the staff report dated June 9, 2026; and
2. Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to set a date for a public hearing to consider permanently closing the street right-of-way within the Parcels CI-A, CI-C, CI-D, CI-E, CI-P1, CI-ME, and CI-P2 as shown in Attachment A of the staff report dated June 9, 2026, with notice to be published in a newspaper at least fourteen days prior to the Council meeting and with notice to be sent to the Minister of Public Works before the hearing.
This is an on-paper exercise about changing some former Cogswell interchange land into parks or building lots and changing some land into roads. We need to do this before moving forward with any sale of the new lots.
This motion passed on the consent agenda.
15.2.1 Update on Options for Future Use of the Halifax Memorial Library Site
I covered the July 2024 council motion to convert the library to a park and the response since then in a podcast with Chris Green on 15 January 2026.
You can listen to that on the podcast “Atlantic News Halifax”. The link to the Apple version is here.
If you look at the episode on your phone, you can read the transcript.
CPED decided to give the library building a priority chance over the park planning process at their last meeting (Item 10.3.1).
May 21, 2026 Community Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee Minutes.
This is the original staff suggested motion on 21 May 2026:
“THAT the Community Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee recommend that Halifax Regional Council direct the Chief Administrative Officer to expand the scope of the community engagement program of the park planning project for the Memorial Library/Grafton Park site to include consultation about the value of the Memorial Library building and return with a staff report to Regional Council as set out in the Discussion Section of the staff report dated May 12, 2026.”
This motion was defeated by CPED.
This is the staff “Alternative 2” motion that passed at CPED, which was debated at council this week:
(As amended by me (#2) & Councillor Purdy (#1) on 16 June 2026) “Motion: THAT Halifax Regional Council:
1. Pause the work on a plan for the Memorial Library Site that was directed in items 2 and 3 of the July 9, 2024, motion (Item No. 15.1.5) until such time as the Expression of Interest process is completed; and
2. Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to investigate new potential opportunities for the adaptive reuse of the Memorial Library through a time limited Expression of Interest or similar mechanism and return to Council with a report outlining those potential uses including proposed funding mechanisms for its consideration.”
There are two things that never happened over the past 12 years regarding the Memorial Library:
- The public has never been consulted as to whether they would like to see a park here or if they would prefer to maintain/reuse the building.
- A formal Expression of Interest period for proposals on what to do with the library and how to pay for it has never been completed.
Over the past year I have heard from the NS Heritage Trust, people joined together now as the Friends of the Memorial Library, DHBC and even a designer from Toronto interested in adaptive reuse of this building. We certainly have no shortage of community non-profit need for affordable space, but HRM alone cannot afford to subsidize this need.
I have also heard from residents who do not want to see this building preserved and are keen to move forward with a park plan that honours the full history of this space.
There are many restrictions on this site that have prevented other ideas from moving forward:
-it is a burring ground for many historically marginalized people
-legislation says it can only be a park or a library
-the building structure is made of steel beams that join together, so keeping a facade wall as a reminder of what was there won’t work because it is not structurally sound on its own
-the building is in poor condition in general
Also:
-we have no municipal need for the building anymore as we have the new library built and in need of its own capital repairs already
-spending extra HRM money on this site will take away from the other long list of capital projects we need to do in HRM, that are currently unbudgeted
-we do have a need for more green space as we densify (but as I said at CPED, that is no reason alone to give up on the building)
-if we do reuse the building, I’d like to see the “new” 1970s section be demolished so we can have a public space and active transportation link between Brunswick & Grafton Streets
So, after two good discussions at CPED and Regional Council, we have arrived at a bit of a compromise. We will take one final try at attracting practical ideas for adaptive reuse of the building, and if nothing materializes that council can move forward with, we will clearly and fully move forward with park public engagement and design.
The amendment passed 14 – 2. I voted Yes.
Today’s motion as amended passed 15 – 1. I voted Yes.