The landlord registry is coming to Halifax on April 1, 2024

COUNCIL

The landlord registry is coming to Halifax on April 1, 2024

We did a poll last week about HRM’s budget, and you may have noticed the last budget meeting has come and gone without any coverage from The Coast. That’s because there’s a little inconsistency in the city’s financial and strategic planning that I’m trying to get to the bottom of before publishing the story. In our poll last week, most of you said you cared a lot about Halifax’s budget season, so I think it’s important to take the time to get this right—since city council isn’t going to ratify the budget for a few weeks anyway.

In the meantime, council carries on as usual. This week’s meeting was fascinating, which you’ll read all about, but councillor Becky Kent said something that stuck with me. She pointed out that Nova Scotia used to have strong and unique small communities like the one she represents, Eastern Passage, but now we don’t. They’re still small and strong, they’re just not as unique anymore.

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the most fascinating is the impact of the stuff that’s 99% invisible, much like the physical world in which we live. Those quirks of local communities come, in part, from isolation—when local customs are required by geography or when quirky social norms can flourish and evolve in the relative isolation of small social circles. Our dependence on, and building for, personal car-based transportation means our isolation is individual now, not communal, so our smaller communities are less unique.

This is perhaps a little tangential, as it’s not directly relevant to what happened at council on Tuesday; it’s just a little amuse-bouche. Because it now seems like the city’s top bureaucrat thinks about the things that are mostly invisible—and if that’s true, that can only be good news for the city.

Need to know

🌧 Today's weather: Freezing rain and rain are expected in the morning and afternoon (5mm). A high of 7C and a low of 6C.

🚧 Queen Street from Spring Garden Road to Clyde Street will be closed starting Apr. 9 at 7am until Apr. 30 at 7pm. Find more road closures here.

📞 Starting tomorrow, Good Friday, Nova Scotia’s mental health and addictions phone lines will now remain open on holidays.

🌁 Due to construction, the northbound lane of the MacKay Bridge and the exit towards Robie and Windsor will be closed Apr. 6-10 and will continue to be closed on weekdays from 7pm to 5:30am until Apr. 28.

💜 Wholetherapy has expanded. We are now accepting new clients both in person and on-line, with no waitlist. Book an initial appointment.*

*Sponsored Post

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PIER21

Events at Canadian Museum of Immigration

The sun is coming out and the temp is rising. It’s the perfect time to shake off winter with some fantastic events, and many are free!

At the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, you can enjoy events like Emerging Lens Film Festival, Yom HaSoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day, Oh Canada! Comedy Show, Seville’s April Fair in Halifax, and California Wine Dinner 2023.

The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is Canada’s sixth national museum. The Museum’s mission is to share the ongoing story of Canadian immigration—past to present, and coast to coast to coast. Located in the Pier 21 national historic site at the Halifax Seaport where nearly one million immigrants landed in Canada from 1928 until 1971.

See you there this month?

On The Coast

In other news

🏆 Halifax’s Muir Hotel has been named one of the best new hotels across the globe in 2023 by the popular travel magazine AFAR. Read the full list.

🛠 Nova Scotians under 30 will now be able to apply for the More Opportunity for Skilled Trades refund. Those in an eligible trade will see the provincial taxes paid on their first $50,000 of income returned.

🫄The Province has introduced a new tax credit for individuals who have paid for fertility treatments and surrogacy in Nova Scotia.

🎙 Listen to Coast editor Kyle Shaw discuss our new Coast Insider membership with CBC.

💻 Nova Scotia has announced a $10 million EdTech Refresh Plan to bring more technology (Chromebooks, iPads, and laptops) into schools.

🏗 Construction season is upon us. Read about the multiple redevelopment projects currently happening in the HRM.

🛍 Zellers has made its comeback in the HRM and if the huge lines at Dartmouth’s Micmac Mall are any indication, the Canadian company has rolled out (again) successfully.

📚 Halifax’s Kate Brooks and Jenny MacDougall have made the longlist for the 2023 CBC Short Story Prize.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ATLANTIC NEWS

Something new at Atlantic News

Two well loved magazines are back on the shelves of Atlantic News. Fine Gardening and Fine Homebuilding were pulled from all newsstand distribution in June of 2021. Atlantic News was pleasantly surprised to have them arrive again.

“Magazine Tuesday is like Christmas, you never know what you are going to unwrap,” said Michele Gerard, co-owner.

Find them at the corner of Morris and Queen Streets.

MUSIC

Matt Mays announces 2023 Shore Club shows for August 24-27

Ok everyone, this is not a drill: Dartmouth indie-rock regent Matt Mays announced today that his annual string of concerts at The Shore Club will be August 24-27, 2023. He's bringing Cape Breton trad-rockers Villages along as the opening act.

An annual tradition bordering on sonic pilgrimage at this point, Mays's Shore Club shows are the antithesis of corporate festival concerts: An intimate, anything-goes set where he and his bandmates play rock 'n' roll that's found fans in the likes of The Gaslight Anthem's Brian Fallon and seems to secure Mays's bid on inheritor of Tom Petty's style. The shore Club itself—a small, seaside dance hall that feels lifted from collective blue-sky memory—is the self-anointed last great dance hall, known for its lobster suppers, beachside proximity and for bringing some of the best live music to Chester, N.S.

Become a paying subscriber of Coast Insider to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In