Halifax Regional Council is meeting this Tuesday, Dec. 10, directly following a meeting of the Budget Committee, which begins at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall

Halifax Regional Council is meeting this Tuesday, Dec. 10, directly following a meeting of the Budget Committee, which begins at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall.

Stadium needs a new location

After it was originally presented to council in July city staff have come back with their recommendation not to support a 24,000-seat CFL stadium at the proposed Shannon Park location.

But the staff report does say that the city would spend the $20 million if the location is one that has “optimal access to major transportation routes and necessary infrastructure.”

Council will look over the staff report and are expected to be prepared to debate and vote on the motion at the upcoming meeting.

Read the full article for more information.

Safe Injection Site for HRM

In October of 2018 regional council requested a staff report on safe injection.

Staff will be returning with their report Tuesday, which outlines service and community impacts, and takes a look at what other municipalities have done when creating safe injection sites.

Supervised consumption sites (SCS), as they’re called in the report, provide hygienic environments where people can consume their own drugs under supervision.

The goal of an SCS is to prevent overdoses and reduce the harms of substance abuse as much as possible.

“Over the past three years, the number of SCSs in Canada has jumped from two (in Vancouver) to 48 across Canada,” says the staff report.

Halifax already has an Overdose Prevention Site, HaliFIX on Gottingen Street, a shorter-term service and a step towards establishing a permanent SCS.

The report also outlines the opioid crisis and says that support from the municipality would work to reduce stigma.

Although there’s no exact location suggested, the report suggests the SCS should be within eight to 10 city blocks of areas where drug use is prominent.

“SCSs are most often set up in areas where there is existing public drug use and in close proximity to their target population,” it reads.

The report suggests that if an SCS is constructed, the city keeps an open rapport with stakeholders including health workers, police, local business and nearby residential communities.

In the end, the 15-page document recommends that Halifax CAO Jacques Dubé formalize discussions with the provincial government, community partners and other stakeholders about creating a municipal drug strategy.

Protecting the Halifax Memorial Library

City staff are recommending that council set a date for a heritage hearing for the Halifax Memorial Library at 5381 Spring Garden Road.

The library has been the subject of much debate, as valuable land in the heart of the city that developers are eager to build upon.

But staff say the library is a valuable heritage site, which scored 57 points out of a possible 70 when evaluated by the Heritage Advisory Committee. The minimum score for approval is 35.

The report says the building, designed by Leslie Fairn in 1948 (who also designed Dalhousie’s Killam Library), is an example of Modern Classical architecture.

Other important aspects of the site, at the corner of Spring Garden and Grafton, include the statue of Winston Churchill erected in 1979, the stone retaining wall around the site, and the public space and thoroughfare known as Grafton Park.

It served as the Halifax Memorial Library until 2014, when the new Halifax Central Library was opened just up the road.

The report also acknowledges that the land was once part of the poor house grounds in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and the remains of more than 4,500 people are buried there.

The first attempt to get the building made a heritage site happened back in 2011, but council deferred, and it never happened.

The building has sat mostly unused since 2014, but the report says that it is structurally sound. However, it does add there may be “significant financial implications” for HRM when repairs and maintenance are required.