Halifax says it spent nearly $1 million on cleanup efforts and remediation of the Victoria Park tent encampment in 2024.
In an email to CTV News, Mark Gough, public affairs manager with the municipality, laid out the expenses.
Halifax spent approximately $771,000 on fencing for Victoria Park and $172,680 dollars on remediation of the site.
Gough says the cost of garbage cleanup for encampments in both designated and non-designated areas for 2023 and 2024 was $300,000.
It all rounds out to more than $1 million, a number Mayor Andy Fillmore says is unacceptable.
“It’s too much money. Encampments are not the answer for people living in encampments and they’re not the answer for HRM taxpayers,” says Fillmore. “These are the costs for encampments and public parks in HRM. It’s an indication that no one should be living in a tent in a park. It’s not good for the people living in the tents, it’s not good for the residents living around the park who rely on those parks as those front and backyards.”
Filmore says taxpayer dollars should be put into permanent solutions for homelessness.
“It’s my objective to work with council to realign the resources that HRM can bring to bear to work in partnership with the provincial government to provide those permanent, sustainable solutions,” he says.
Laura White, councillor for Halifax-South downtown, says the city has learned lessons from clearing out encampments in 2024.
“It is a lot of money and we don’t want to be spending that much,” says White. “What I learned from speaking with staff is that the soil testing won’t be required in future de-designated sites.
“The other thing that will be better in the future is HRM has now purchased fencing to be able to use for this situation, whereas in (the Victoria Park) situation we were using a contract that we were tied into and didn’t know how long it would go…and it added up and added up to this amount.”
Some Haligonians were shocked to hear how much was spent on cleanup efforts and say it could have been used in other ways.
“I’m glad that it’s done, but I do believe that money could have been used towards better purposes of helping those people that were living here before,” says Tessa Worth.
Filmore says prioritizing indoor options for people and working with the province is top focus.
“So that we don’t need encampments anymore and we can move past the era of encampments. That’s the work that lies ahead in 2025,” says Fillmore.
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