🗞️ Paying tribute

Hey Halifax,

It feels too late to make any significant life changes this year, but looking forward to Q1 of 2025, I’m going to adopt the “Andy Fillmore technique” of declaring things that are very obviously a problem to be no longer a problem.

Litter box? Clearly pristine. My closet? A study in minimalism. The dried out pine-needle shedding Christmas tree in the corner of the living room? Actually flourishing. It’s great because it will help me to do less work while having the side-benefit of gaslighting everyone in my life, which is just plain fun.

According to our new mayor, the worst of Halifax's homeless crisis is over and we can go ahead and close down encampments as quickly as possible! Hooray! Except that the people actually working in the homelessness sector say that is categorically not true.

The executive director of Adsum House—a transitional centre—says that Fillmore’s statement is “misinformed” and says that it’s damaging to repeat this narrative that the worst of things are behind us when the numbers are actually growing.

The Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia said that 1,238 people in the HRM reported they were homeless as of Dec. 10. That figure does not include the more than 200 children who are homeless and receive support from Adsum.

But this is coming from the guy that said that he considered his failed motion to retract the list of potential homeless encampments to be a success—which all suggests that perhaps for him everyday is, in fact, Opposite Day.

Have a good one!

– Julie

🌡️ Traffic & Weather

Today: 🌤️ 6°

Tomorrow: 🌧️ 4°

Next Day: ☁️ 0°

7-day forecast

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

FOOD + DRINK

First look at Tribute, Halifax’s new waterfront fine-dining gem

Colin Bebbington is a bubbling pot of stories. Ask him to expound on the subtleties of Bolognese pasta or the kitchens he’s worked in from London to Chicago to Napa, and he’ll happily hold court for long enough to fully, undeniably convince you: The man is obsessed with food. Loves everything about it, from brioche to bratwurst to broccoli.

In Tribute, the 34-year-old Halifax chef’s first fine-dining restaurant, that love and attention to detail is everywhere, from the rotating menu of locally-sourced dishes to the tidy stacks of wood used to stoke the kitchen’s open-flame oven and grill.

One month on from its opening in the new Cunard building on the Halifax Waterfront, that obsession is paying off. Business is brisk, Bebbington says, speaking with The Coast on a winter morning at the restaurant.                     

“I don’t think I could have asked for a better start,” he adds.

And to hear him tell it, it’s only the beginning.

The Coast’s Martin Bauman speaks with Bebbington about his path from Halifax to Michelin-starred kitchens and back again—and how, with his first solo venture, he’s paying homage to it all.

🤔 Need To Know

👟 The federal government announced that Terry Fox has been selected to appear on the next $5 bank note—Fox is a Canadian icon who campaigned for cancer research by running his Marathon of Hope in 1980.

👮 Halifax police are asking the public for help locating a taser that fell from an officer’s holster on Monday night when it came loose during a foot chase on Yorkshire Avenue in Dartmouth.

🧑‍🏫 Interested in learning French this Winter? Check out our intensive courses at Université Sainte-Anne (online or in person)!*

*Sponsored Post

SPONSORED BY ATLANTIC NEWS

Pre-order the Globe's holiday crossword

Reserve your Globe and Mail holiday crossword issue, out December 21! Call (902) 429-5468 to order your copy of this holiday tradition, or visit our website.

NEWS + OPINION

Highest single-year increase in Nova Scotia’s child poverty rate, new report finds

A new report card is sounding the alarm on childhood poverty in Nova Scotia. More than two in five Nova Scotian children are living in food-insecure households, according to Statistics Canada—a number that has been “steadily rising” in recent years, the Canadian Centre for Police Alternatives-Nova Scotia report warns. And it comes as provincially-funded school breakfast and pay-what-you-can lunch programs prepare to pause for the winter break.

The new CCPA-NS report draws on Statistics Canada data from 2022, a year which marked the highest single-year increase in child poverty rates in Nova Scotia in decades. 

As The Coast’s Lauren Phillips writes, the report card’s authors are calling the increase “all the more troubling” given Ottawa’s decades-old pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2024.

🗞️ In Other News

🔥 Fire destroyed several tents early in the morning at an encampment for homeless people near Green Road Park in suburban Dartmouth—Halifax Fire and Emergency says there were no injuries.

🏢 Halifax's vacancy rate has climbed above 1% for the first time in four years—but the new rate of 2.1% has not yet helped make rental housing more affordable in the city. 

📬 Thousands of Canada Post workers returned to work on Tuesday, but the postal service is warning of delays as it gradually works through the mountain of backlog after a month-long strike.

📦 Missing Christmas packages are leaving Nova Scotians frustrated with online order deliveries—customers are sharing their experiences of undelivered packages and unanswered complaints.

🩺 A team of doctors and researchers at Dalhousie University has received funding to look for ways to improve the quality of life for long-term cancer patients.

🌡️ Between 2014 and 2023 Nova Scotia has, on average, added seven days of above-freezing temperatures each winter due to climate change, according to a new study released by Climate Central—a U.S.-based climate science organization.

⚖️ The brother of a man who died seven years ago after a fall spoke at the sentencing of those who have admitted responsibility—Brandon Alcorn, 22, died when he fell off the roof of a Kent Building Supplies store in Dartmouth.

SPONSORED BY HOPE BLOOMS

Halifax, you have a heart of gold

Thank you for supporting Hope Blooms and voting us the Gold Winner for Best Community Project. This recognition belongs to our community and celebrates the impact of our work in education, food security and empowerment. To all the community organizations doing inspiring work—it truly takes a village.

🗓️ Things To Do

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

🗓 Choir! Choir! Choir! - Un-silent night: Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman started Choir! Choir! Choir! In Toronto as a weekly drop-in singing event in February 2011. Equal parts singing, comedy, and community-building, the duo now travel around the world to bring friends, foes, and strangers together to sing the greatest songs of all time. All you have to do is show up and they’ll teach you your parts! | Dec. 19 | 8pm | From $45

🗓 Handel's Messiah: A highlight of the holiday season, Handel’s Messiah is the consummate masterpiece, eliciting joy, triumph, and majesty. This year’s concert will be conducted by Vicki St. Pierre, a contralto and specialist in early music with a doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Toronto, who has performed internationally and directed choirs across Canada and the UK. | Dec. 20-21 | 7:30pm | From $31

🗓 Science with Santa & the Grinch: Join the Discovery Centre and bounce foggy bubbles, make instant snow, launch snowman stomp rockets, watch chemistry light up decor, fly snowflakes in the wind tunnel and so much more! | Dec. 21 | 7:30pm | $17.50

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

⚓️ What’s In The Harbour

➡️ The NYK Remus container ship leaves Halifax for Southampton at 3am.

➡️ The One Minato container ship leaves Halifax for New York at 3am.

➡️ The H Mercury container ship leaves Halifax for Kingston at 3:30am.

🛳️ The One Cygnus container ship arrives in Halifax from Singapore at 5:15am.

🛳️➡️ The MSC Lisa container ship arrives in Halifax from La Havre at 6:15am and leaves for Montreal at 5pm.

🛳️ The Atlantic Sail container ship arrives in Halifax from Norfolk at 3:20pm.

🍴 Where To Eat & Drink

🥒 Try a dill-icious take on a classic chicken sandwich with the Manitoba Honey Dill at CHKN Chop: fried chicken, honey dill sauce, pickled onions, lettuce, dill pickles, fresh dill.

🍸 Embrace the cozy vibes this holiday season with a handcrafted winter cocktail from The Wooden Monkey: pomegranate martini, maple old fashioned, after 8ish hot chocolate, holiday eggnog and/or winter spice sangria.

👀 In Case You Missed It

🏆 It’s an historic year in The Coast’s annual Best of Halifax Awards: Six Food + Drink winners are joining the rarefied air of the BOH Hall of Fame after some truly impressive runs of dominance—including a longtime food truck favourite and a beloved Dartmouth cafe. The Coast’s Martin Bauman has you covered with all the Food + Drink winners.

🛍️ The federal GST holiday has begun and is expected to last for two months—the reaction is mixed in Halifax, where shoppers are actually getting bigger savings.

🌊 Nova Scotia has been named one of Travel + Leisure magazine’s 50 Best Places to Travel in 2025, celebrated for its proximity to the ocean—but the province is also at risk of immense sea level rise.

That’s it!

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