Accelerating Halifax Transit’s Core Service Plan survives budget vote

Halifax council talked about improving the transit system during budget deliberations.

The increase Haligonians will see on their property tax bills remains to be seen, as decisions are actively being made at city hall this week.

But one decision approved by councillors on Wednesday – to spend $14.1 million on Halifax Transit – will see a nearly two per cent increase.

“There’s lots of disagreement around this room about many different things, but I feel like the one thing we all kind of collectively agree on as important is transit,” said Coun. Sam Austin.

There are two Budget Adjustment List (BAL) items that would fulfil the Core Service Plan, which was brought to the Transportation Standing Committee less than four weeks ago. That was a costed plan without funding allocated.

The entirety of the plan would see 30 new buses and associated operating costs, to increase some routes, add 24/7 service to the airport and add a new route for areas of growth, from West Bedford to Clayton Park and Bayers Lake.

Wednesday morning’s vote supports the purchase of the first 10 buses and the coinciding operating costs, one year ahead of staff’s proposal.

Coun. Kathryn Morse brought forward the motion to debate.

“We have overloads, we have missed buses, we have reliability issues, and we have growing demand,” she said.

It will support the implementation of service increases to the Route 3, Route 9A/B, and Route 28 to occur in 2026/27.

While many line items still need to be discussed, the vote would see the proposed rate climb to about 10 per cent, up from 8.2 per cent.

Even if council held a flat tax rate, average residential tax bills would still increase by 5.6 per cent or $147.

But it’s worth the cost, said Deputy Mayor Patty Cuttell.

“We’ve seen an increase of 60,000 people in our city, we’re seeing the results of that on our roads and congestion and on our transit system through overloading and poor on-time performance standards,” she told reporters.

‘A real need to accelerate’: Deputy mayor

Cuttell said council can’t maintain the status quo and respond to growth at the same time.

“These aren’t the future issues that we’re looking at,” she said. “These are issues that people are experiencing today, and there’s a real need to accelerate this thing and get the buses rolling.”

The vote passed 10-6.

One of the nay votes was Mayor Andy Fillmore.

“This is such a tough one,” he told reporters.

“We obviously have a congestion problem, we have a transit system that is struggling really hard to keep up with demand and at the same time, we have an affordability problem,” he said.

Fillmore said he supported the original staff plan and opposed funding the plan in 2026-27, but he’s hopeful federal funds will come through to help ease the financial burden.

The routes

Five of the ten buses – and half of the operating costs – would go to Route 3 from Bayers Lake to Burnside, two areas that have seen significant ridership growth. Service would be increased during peak times and on weekends.

“We think there’s just an enormous amount of demand waiting for that,” said Patricia Hughes, Halifax Transit’s director of planning and public engagement.

Two other routes that would be supported in the first year include Route 9A/B Herring Cove and Route 28 Bayers Lake (connecting Halifax and Bayers Lake).

Some councillors alluded to paying for buses and the Road to Economic Prosperity as reasons why they had to make other cuts on Wednesday, such as one to a tree re-planting program.

Future years

Another vote, to support the additional 20 buses and operating costs, has yet to be voted on at the time of publication.

During February’s Transportation Standing Committee, councillors learned the capital cost for the new buses is pegged at $53 million in the next three years, with additional operating costs estimated at $22.1 million. Funding the plan would add about $63.73 to the average property tax bill over the same time span, said the report.

With a file from The Canadian Press

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