🗞️ CAP it all off

Hey Halifax,

If you’re looking for jokes or Taylor or cats today, you might want to skip over this intro, because what I’m going to talk about is dark. But it’s weighing on me heavily, and I thought it might be weighing on you too.

On Monday, the Walmart on Mumford Road re-opened after what was quite possibly the most horrific event I can recall in recent Halifax history.  

Gursimran Kaur—19 years old and beautiful—came to Canada with big dreams. She and her mother were both a part of the Sikh community, and had been working at the Walmart store for about two years. The world fell apart for her family on the evening of Oct 19 when Gursimran was found dead inside a walk-in oven in the bakery department. It was her mother who found her daughter’s body.

The story made international headlines as we all—perplexed and sickened—wondered how in the hell this could have happened. We needed an explanation because the whole thing was too disturbing to make sense of. 

Then—in what feels like the gaslight of the century—Halifax police told us that they didn’t consider the death “suspicious.” Which I know, at some level, just translates to “we don’t suspect foul play.” But it’s a stupid choice of words because everything about this remains suspicious: How were there not safety measures in place to make this kind of death impossible? Who is accountable to this family? 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel great about a newly-renovated store being open for business like nothing ever happened. Because Gursimran Kaur died there and we have no idea how it was even possible. And until I can confidently walk in with more answers than questions, I’ll be shopping far away from that deeply cursed building.

Love and light 🥀

– Julie

📷 @editorjulesl

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: 🌤️ -1°

Tomorrow: 🌧️ 4°

Next Day: 🌤️ -4°

7-day forecast

🚗 Driving, biking or busing today? Check out the current traffic conditions and ongoing road closures.

CITY HALL

Police board dodges blame for August 2021 shelter siege

Five months after a bombshell report laid the blame for Aug 18, 2021’s shambolic shelter siege at the feet of Halifax Regional Police and the HRM, the oversight board that’s supposed to police the former on behalf of the latter seems to want nothing to do with it. On Monday, Feb 3, Halifax’s Board of Police Commissioners heard an update on the HRM’s response to the Halifax Independent Civilian Review, a 116-page debriefing of what went wrong on a “day of chaos” where police and HRM staff cleared out four encampment sites for unhoused residents across the city. Things turned “disastrous” on that day, the report concluded, when dozens of police clashed with protesters at the old Memorial Library on Spring Garden Road, pepper-spraying crowds and arresting more than two dozen people as city crews used a chainsaw to tear down the temporary shelters.

It was a day District 3 councillor Becky Kent, one of the city’s police commissioners, called “violent and disturbing” at the time. At HRM council’s first meeting after the shelter siege, on Aug 31, 2021, she summarized the city’s missteps as the “unintended consequences of what we thought was a good plan,” adding that she “never” wanted to see “something like that happen again.”

But nearly four years on from the violent clashes and mass arrests that prompted thousands to sign a petition calling for an independent civilian review, and a detailed report that offered 37 recommendations for the BOPC, one is left to wonder what the municipality and police have learned from Aug 18. Because it wasn’t clear at all at Monday’s police board meeting, The Coast’s Martin Bauman reports.

🤔 Need To Know

🧠 The Nova Scotia government says the first phase of its long-promised universal mental health care program will begin this spring—the province will soon cover therapy costs for patients with mood and anxiety disorders.

⛺ As court proceedings continue for the man charged with attacking three Halifax Infirmary staff members last week, housing advocates say the case speaks to a broader issue in the community—some say more shelter options may prevent other violent attacks.

🚰 Halifax Water released a preliminary report on the cause of last month’s boil water advisory that affected more than 200,000 people in the city—a power outage on Jan 20 blew fuses to the pumps at the Pockwock water treatment plant, even though the facility’s backup generator was functional.

💸 In an announcement at the Port of Halifax, federal cabinet minister Anita Anand said the regulations that are often criticized as barriers to trade between Canadian provinces could all crumble within a month.

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OPINION

Premier Houston, take off the CAP

Now that Halifax’s budget season has started, there’s sure to be more attention on the city’s main revenue source—property taxes. Even as the city desperately needs money, city councillors are nervous about raising taxes. There is intense pressure to keep property tax low, especially from the powerful voting bloc of homeowning seniors.

Complicating things for Halifax is a provincial plan from 2008, the Capped Assessment Program. The CAP was a way to protect longtime residents from the real estate boom, so a retiree who’d lived forever in their house wouldn’t suddenly receive an outrageously high tax bill just because on paper, their property’s assessed value had been driven up by a superheated housing market. Capping assessments at a low price was done with the best of intentions.

Yet in practice over almost 20 years, most of the CAP’s benefits have gone to landlords—yes, investment properties can be capped—and the super-rich. Pictured above is a sprawling mansion on the Northwest Arm. Its assessment thanks to the CAP is $3.6 million below its market assessment, a gap that saves the property owners $28,000 a year in taxes. Adding up all the gaps across the municipality, there is $23.5 billion worth of property value that city hall can’t tax, an effective loss of $181 million in tax revenue last year.

Deny Sullivan goes deeper into the program—with charts!—to argue the CAP is an extreme and unlimited tax shield that premier Tim Houston should remove.

🗞️ In Other News

🚢 The federal government will spend up to $25M to improve supply chain efficiency and environmental sustainability at the Port of Halifax—$22.5M of the funding was allocated under the Green Shipping Corridor Program.

🏗️ The Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia is calling for the preservation of a 132-year-old building on Brunswick Street—home of the Halifax Alehouse—that could face the wrecking ball.

⚖️ A Halifax acupuncturist has been sentenced to six months in jail for sexual assault—Xiao Han Li, 36, must also serve 12 months on probation and pay $1,754 in restitution.

🌲 Forest products that are grown, harvested, crafted or manufactured in Nova Scotia will soon be marketed through the Nova Scotia Loyal program—forest product producers can enrol in the program and will be automatically approved.

🛩️ Porter Airlines will expand its service in Atlantic Canada, including daily flights between Halifax and Hamilton, Ont., ahead of the summer season.

🗓️ Things To Do

Looking for something to do this week? Check out these Coast picks:

🗓 Dine Around Halifax: Dine Around is coming back for the month of February. Savour special menus from your favourite Halifax restaurants, priced at $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 or $60. | Feb 1-28 

🗓 Halifax Live Presents Wyatt Cote: Wyatt Cote dropped out of college one year shy of graduation to pursue a career in comedy, and has since become an internationally working headliner with five comedy contest wins to his credit. He was the winner of the World Series of Comedy in 2021 and also finished runner-up in the historic San Francisco Comedy Competition. | Feb 7 and 8 | 7pm | $26.25 

🗓 Ben Caplan with Symphony Nova Scotia: Halifax’s own Ben Caplan has taken the world by storm with his bold style, brilliant songs, and deft and daring orchestral arrangements. This time, he returns with a brand-new, genre-bending song cycle that blends old-world folk music, synthesizers, drum machines and a full symphony orchestra to explore love, despair and exuberance in the face of an ever-changing world. | Feb 7 and 8 | 7:30pm | From $48

🗓 Eugene Ripper Live: Canadian punk folk rocker Eugene Ripper returns to Halifax to promote his latest recordings and bring it with his acoustic punk, twisted country, fast folk, garage blues and rock ‘n’ roll show. A limited edition collectable 7” vinyl will be on sale at the show only! | Feb 9 | 8pm | $15 

Have an event to share? Let us know at [email protected].

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️The Atlantic Sky container ship leaves Halifax for Liverpool, England at 1:30am.

➡️ The CMA CGM G Washington container ship leaves Halifax for New York at 2am.

🚢➡️ The Atlantic Star container ship arrives in Halifax from Norfolk, England at 5:20am and leaves for Liverpool, England at 5pm.

🚢 The Nolhan Ava container ship arrives in Halifax from St. Pierre at 7:30am.

🚢➡️ The Bakkafoss container ship arrives in Halifax from Portland, Maine at 1:15pm and leaves for Argentia at 4pm.

➡️ The One Grus container ship leaves Halifax for New York at 5pm.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🧅 Dress up an old classic with the Sour Cream and Onion Bacon Poutine from CHKN CHOP: fries, cheese curds, gravy, pulled chicken, green onion, crispy onion.

🥐 Get excited Halifax because the Chocolate Filled Kruffin is back at Total Donut Solutions: flaky, buttery croissants baked in the shape of a muffin and filled with creamy housemade chocolate custard.

👀 In Case You Missed It

🏛️ This next month is crucial for Canadian governments to prepare for the end of our American dependence and start the fight to regain Canadian sovereignty. And believe it or not, the front lines of this battle are where American national security and Canadian municipal budgets meet. For more on the skirmish that started yesterday at City Hall, The Coast’s trade war correspondent Matt Stickland has you covered.

🛒 Announced last July, the Nova Scotia Loyal program seeks to supply national grocery chain Sobeys and the provincial liquor corporation with the means to promote local goods using an “enhanced procurement policy, branding to showcase local products and incentives for Nova Scotians to buy local.” Fast-forward seven months and in the wake of Trump’s tariff “will he or won’t he,” premier Tim Houston said that the province will “look for new markets here at home with programs like Nova Scotia Loyal.” Dig into The Coast archive to jog your memory on the Nova Scotia Loyal Program, as Brendyn Creamer took a deep dive into the program when it was launched.

That’s it!

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