Posted 
Friday, April 29, 2011
PRESS RELEASE
HRM City Staff Not Calculating Real Cost of Oval
(Halifax) In its rush to Save the Oval, the HRM staff report on the Canada Games Oval, recommending a single centralized skating facility on the North Halifax Common, has miscalculated the price tag and budget implications.
"One cost missing is NSPI's forecasted 20% electricity rate increase by 2015, on top of the 43% since 2002" says Alan Ruffman, Executive member of Friends of Halifax Common.
"Another is the increased cost of energy consumption and maintenance of such a large outdoor ice surface when Environment Canada is telling us that, thanks to climate change, we've just come through the warmest winter on record- the 14th in a row, and one with many extreme weather events that bring high winds, high rain and snowfalls and lots of power outages," concludes Ruffman.
Derek Hawes, project manager for the Ice Rink Energy Programme that is operated through the Recreation Facility Association of Nova Scotia, raised several concerns with HRM about the oval.
"This one facility has a similar refrigeration capacity as eight indoor community arenas, and in another location such as the Central Common or Beasley Field, the waste heat could be used to heat approximately 140 homes or the equivalent number of public buildings such as hospitals or a school," said Mr Hawes.
"I suggested a number of other skating options, including skating paths in Victoria Park, on the Grand Parade or other community destinations where the waste heat could be used, but for the staff, the oval on the Common was a done deal," Mr. Hawes continued.
Hawes is also concerned about the quality of the refrigeration units the city purchased: "I have reason to believe the long-term operating and maintenance costs will be significantly higher than staff projected."
"Unfortunately, Council was misled and based their decision on misinformation provided in the staff report- If the oval goes ahead, it would be the most expensive and environmentally unfriendly rink ever built in the province." concluded Mr. Hawes.
Friends of Halifax Common presented at several HRM Community Council meetings to urge more time be taken so the best decision is made. Members suggest that the oval could be a focus for the redesign of the Central Common or, as proposed in the original plan for the Canada Winter Games Skating oval, to have a network of community neighbourhood skating venues throughout HRM instead of forcing everyone to drive to one destination.
The North Common is less than one-third of the original public open space on the Halifax Common.
“The skating oval is another example of where the HRM staff are rushing into a poor planning decision for the Halifax Common instead of respecting a long-term master-plan,” said Beverly Miller, FHC Co-chair. “Public open space on the Halifax Common will be lost, or continue to be covered with concrete or remain under threat of commercialization as long as there is no proper public process,” concluded Miller.
The estimate for making the oval permanent is approximately $6 million dollars. Although sponsors have come forward, all HRM taxpayers will be contributing $8 per $100,000 property value. No estimates have been provided for multiple outdoor skating rinks throughout HRM.
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Media Contact: Peggy Cameron-902-258-3354 / Derek Hawes-902-403-6511 (c)
Freshwater Brook Commemorated
Friends of Halifax Common celebrated Earth Day 2011 by installing 100 blue stakes along the former pathway of Freshwater Brook. Approximately 30 willow tree switches were planted alongside the blue stakes which were decorated with fish - as a reference to the former waterway. The original Halifax Common included the lands which drained into this stream that is now buried, channelled or diverted underground. The watershed was a marshy, wooded area with the stream starting above the North Common and running through the Central Common (the small Eigg pond there is now part of the skate park), the Public Garden (Griffin Pond) all the way to the Halifax Harbour below Inglis Street. In former times ships would collect fresh water from this brook at the Harbour outfall.
Illustration of the Freshwater Brook's path from Representing Halifax: Exploring the Potential of the City through Mapping by Matt Neville,
see: http://spacingatlantic.ca/2010/01/28/representing-halifax-exploring-the-potential-of-the-city-through-mapping/
Media Release
Posted Thursday, April 21, 2011
Media ReleaseEarth Day- Friends of Halifax Common Commemorate Freshwater Brook's Path
(Halifax) Friends of Halifax Common (FHC) are marking Earth Day by outlining a portion of the historic Freshwater Brook, a watercourse that lies buried underneath the Halifax Common.
“One of hundreds of interesting suggestions from citizens of Halifax included in the 1994 Halifax Common Plan was to “daylight” or expose Freshwater Brook or even just sections of it,” said Peggy Cameron, co-chair of the Friends of Halifax Common. “Unfortunately, HRM continues to ignore that master-plan and to little by little give away or pave the public's open space,” concluded Cameron.
Although the Common was once defined as the land area or watershed that drained into Freshwater Brook, today the only remnant of the brook is Griffin’s Pond in the Public Gardens. The skate park is on the site of what was formerly known as Egg Pond.
“Sadly, the Halifax Common compares too well with how we humans treat our environment,” said FHC supporter Moire Peters. “Despite solid scientific understanding about our need to respect our ecosystems, we continue to pave our land, pollute our watersheds and ignore what the implications for the future will be,” concluded Ms. Peters.
Less than 1/3 of the Halifax Common’s original 235 acres that King George III granted in 1763 “for the use of the inhabitants of the Town of Halifax forever” remains as public open space. Few citizens know that the Halifax Common includes all the land bordered by Robie and North Park, Ahern, Bell Road and South Park Streets between Cunard and South Streets.
Another Earth Day Action to raise attention about the need to protect ecosystems invites Nova Scotia citizens to bring jars of tap water to the provincial legislature on Hollis Street between 1-2 pm on Friday. This rally is a call for a ban against hydraulic fracking, a method of exploration for shale gas that threatens water and air quality.
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Media Contact: Peggy Cameron: 492-4372
Media Release
Posted March 28-11
HRM Staff Support of $6 Million Dollar Centralized Oval is Ad Hoc Planning
(Halifax) The HRM staff report on the Canada Games Oval recommending a single centralized skating facility on the Halifax Common is ad hoc planning, according to Friends of Halifax Common (FHC). The group questions the ovalÕs placement, the planning process and the price tag.
ÒFriends of the Halifax Common definitely support an outdoor rink, but we believe other locations such as on the Central Common or the WandererÕs Grounds, or several outdoor skating rinks in local communities throughout HRM would be just as popular as the single giant oval on the North Common,Ó said Peggy Cameron, Co-chair of the Friends of the Halifax Common.
The North Common is less than one-third of the remaining public open space on the Halifax Common, which extends from Cunard St. to South St., bounded by Robie, North Park and South Park Streets. All decisions made by staff and council since the Halifax Common Plan was adopted in 1994 have been inconsistent with it.
HRM staffÕs January 2010 North Common Master Plan included ÒimprovementsÓ to the North Common with the major portion of the $2.7 million budget going towards permanent infrastructure for the private, expensive mega-concerts. Reference to these already made expenditures have dropped out of site.
The temporary Canada GameÕs skating oval was to be on the North Common near Robie St. at the Willow Tree intersection. Instead the oval was constructed closer to North Park St. almost on top of the proposed permanent concert venue, where it straddles two baseball fields and blocks the major walking path to and from the downtown.
ÒThe history of poor planning decisions by HRM staff with respect to the Halifax Common, means millions of scarce tax dollars continue to be squandered,Ó said Beverly Miller, FHC Co-chair. ÒPublic open space on the Halifax Common will be lost or remain under threat of commercialization as long as flavour-of-the-month is the basis for decisions,Ó concluded Miller.
The estimate for making the oval permanent is between $4 and $6 million dollars. Between 77,000-100,000 people skated on the central oval over the 77 days it was open at an estimated cost of $410,000. No estimates have been provided for multiple outdoor skating rinks throughout HRM.
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Media Contact: Sheilagh Hunt- 425-3725 Sheilagh@ns.sympatico.ca
Also see: Spacing Atlantic Article "Skating Around the Important Questions" January 21, 2011.
Article
Posted Jan 25-10
The Right to the Common
BY KATIE MCKAY
from: http://spacingatlantic.ca/2010/01/26/the-right-to-the-common/
HALIFAX - Last Wednesday January 20th, HRM staff presented
the plan “Improvements to the North Common” [PDF] to a full
house, where there were more people in attendance than there
were chairs. The presentation of the plan lasted an hour, and
although only 30 minutes was set aside for input from the public,
the question period ended up continuing for over an hour and a
half, until only a handful of people were left in the room.
In this new century, we are facing a different kind of threat to public
space— not one of disuse, but of patterns of design and management
that exclude some people and reduce social and cultural diversity... to read more download pdf 
Media Release
Posted 10-21-09
Take a Chalk Around the Common
Halifax, NS- In support of 350.org, International Day of Climate Action, Friends of Halifax Common are inviting the public to volunteer to help them in drawing a chalk line around the entire perimeter of the original Common. Join them on Friday October 23rd from 12-2 p.m.
Less than 1/3 of the Halifax Common's original 235 acres granted in 1763 by King George III is public open space.
“Our vanishing Halifax Common is a metaphor for the disappearance of our global Common, most urgently our atmosphere & climate” said Sheila Hunt of the Friends. “Our air, water, and land – the common heritage of all people – are being degraded. How we choose to deal with the finite natural resources of our planet has lasting repercussions for future generations."
Volunteers will be supplied with chalk at meeting points around the Common and asked to use their imagination to illustrate the border of the Common with drawings of sheep & cows, cabbage & corn or words to encourage governments to act on climate change.
“Without truly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels we will continue to put the entire global common at risk,” said Gretchen Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada, Atlantic Chapter. “We hope this early action to re-define the Common will bring attention to the International Day of Climate Action. The website, <http://www.390.org>www.390.org has information on what people and communities are doing worldwide.”
Meeting points for volunteers to get chalk and directions are: Robie St. at Cunard, Jubilee or University; South Park St. at South or Spring Garden Rd.; Bell Rd. across from the Bengal Lancers and North Park St. at Cogswell.
Click here for a map of the commons
Information on October 24th International Day of Climate Action: www.350.org
Sign the Kyotoplus petition: http://kyotoplus.ca/>http://kyotoplus.ca
Join www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148640510791
For more information contact (en francais aussi)
Peggy Cameron, FHC co-chair and Executive: 902-492-4372
p.cameron@ns.sympatico.ca
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Media Release
Friends of Halifax Common Challenge Sale of Common Land
Posted 10-21-08
Friends of Halifax Common (FHC) are calling on the provincial government to stop the sale of 5.5 acres of Halifax Common land at the former Queen Elizabeth High School (QEHS). The QEHS land is included in a land swap between HRM and the province. FHC says this a bad deal. HRM will lose public open green space, pay $1.9 million for the land swap but will acquire half as much as land as the province.
All the traded land will be for two "Flagship Developments" purportedly to create a livable, prosperous, vibrant, attractive urban and legislative precinct."
"What's wrong with the Halifax Common being the Flagship Un-development?" asks FHC co-chair Peggy Cameron. "Isn't supporting public parks and open green space, places to walk a dog, throw a Frisbee, go for a run, or plant a garden just as important for creating a healthy, vibrant, livable city as building more buildings?"
"What's at stake is the park used by many Halifax residents who live in apartments and are students, young families or seniors with low incomes," said Cameron, noting that the skate park and only children's play ground on the North Common are directly opposite the ambulance driveway to the new hospital emergency entrance.
By ignoring the 1994 Halifax Common Plan's instruction to retain all land in the Halifax Common including the QEHS, Council continues to whittle away at the public area bounded by Cunard, South, Robie and North and South Park streets. Less than one-third of the original 235 acres of the Halifax Common remain.
"Where is the overall vision for how the city could be look? That scale of landmark is like New York's Central Park," FHC co-chair Beverly Miller explains. "Imagine the uproar in Manhattan if the City gave away 5.5 acres for a building."
HRM's staff report promises lots of green setbacks and walkways, but based on similar pledges when part of Tower Road was given to the VG hospital, the city's track record on such promises is poor.
"It's incredible that after Chebucto Road, that HRM is 'easing traffic circulation' by widening Bell Road 38 feet," said Laena Garrison, Ecology Action Centre's transportation expert. "The proposed bike lane's location, on an ambulance route along a busy thoroughfare through a large intersection, is questionable in terms of safety" stated Garrison.
HRM needs the provincial government to pass Bill 204 to sell the Common. Presenters before Law Amendment's Committee suggested the government help protect the Common by leasing the new emergency site to Capital Health but keeping the rest of the QEHS lot as green, open, and Common.
The British medical journal The Lancet recently reported that green space reduces the "health gap" between rich and poor http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7714950.stm The Regional Plan wants 15,000 - 20,000 more residents on the peninsula by 2025 without any plan for additional open space.
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For more information contact:
Peggy Cameron, FHC co-chair and Executive: 902-492-4372
Beverly Miller, FHC co-chair and Executive: 902-429-9540
SELLING THE COMMON!
Posted 11-19-08
HRM Council is going to sell the Queen Elizabeth High School site, Halifax Common land. This is to facilitate Flagship Developments on Spring Garden Road & Queen (the new public library) and the Grand Parade & Province House.
The Halifax Common Plan is very specific about the amount of city-owned land in the Halifax Common not being decreased (3.1). The Plan recommends preserving public open space for a variety of outdoor recreation and leisure activities or other suitable public uses.
It specifically mentions the Queen Elizabeth High School as being an example of a property to be returned to the city when it is declared surplus by the School Board. At 5.5 acres it is the largest parcel of land that could revert to public open green space.
Friends of the Halifax Common believes the newly constructed Halifax Infirmary Emergency site (which happened without due process) could be leased to the province BUT the balance of the Queen Elizabeth High School lands should become public open green space.
Details on what the city is proposing can be found at:
http://www.halifax.ca/council/agendasc/documents/081118cow5.pdf
What’s wrong with the HRM staff report:
HRM Council has "flagship development" projects slated for Spring Garden Road /Queen Street and Grand Parade / Province House.
These projects “balance future land use objectives with the goal of creating a liveable, prosperous, vibrant, attractive urban and legislative precinct respectively”. This will be facilitated through a land sale, including Halifax Common land- the 5.5 acres from the former Queen Elizabeth High School.
FHC SAYS: Why can’t the Halifax Common be HRM’s flagship undevelopment?
The Halifax Common creates a “liveable, prosperous, vibrant, attractive urban precinct” – why wreck it?
There will always be a reason to give away the Common. Imagine New York allowing 5.5 acres of Central Park to be sold for a building.
The Real Cost?
HRM is trading 269,994 ft2 for the province's 131,330 ft2
It’s getting half as much land (137, 664 ft2 difference) but its still paying the province $1.9 million.
FHC SAYS: Is this good dollar value?
Would a farmer make this decision about a piece of land?
From the HRM Staff report:
Amount of land being transferred to the Province in ft2
255,742 + 13252 = 268,994
Amount of land being transferred to HRM:
47,040 + 84290 = 131,330
Public Green Space:
All of the lands traded will be used for buildings. There is no net gain in public open green space.
FHC SAYS: It is projected that the peninsula population will be increased by 15,000 to 20,000 by 2020. Build a building on Common land and we lose that land for another 100 years.
Traffic:
A lot of details on what HRM is proposing for land use are about traffic:
widening Bell Road 38 feet to four lanes- to ease the flow of cars, buses, emergency vehicles and no kidding cyclists!;
new building design by the captial district health has to leave space to accommodate future traffic and intersection improvements at Robie and Bell Road and Bell Road at Trollope (a rotary anyone?)
FHC SAYS: Widening roads doesn’t work & is not sustainable.
It’s like going on a diet by loosening your belt – that’s not sustainable prosperity!
Health Care:
HRM staff cite CBC radio interviews as their source for evidence that the VG site is in bad conditions. They don't cite the Dal Surgery 2007 report which gives many examples of how efficiencies could be improved within the existing infrastructure:
- completing the 6th floor of the Dartmouth General;
- increasing long-term care bed numbers,
- using efficiencies within the region etc.
The report mentions… " with changing demographics, additional hospital capacity/beds is expected"
…"health care is a major economic contributor to HRM, the province and to peninsula Halifax and expansion at the QEII complex would add 2000-3000 staff"
FHC SAYS: Why would the city (and province) supporting a model that promotes illness as an economic driver rather than wellness?
Why isn’t Capital Health building up- increasing density, instead of out?
Are all Nova Scotians going to receive health care in Halifax?
Health Benefits from Public Green Space:
There is lots of evidence that even small parks in the heart of our cities can protect us from strokes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stress and perhaps even promote faster healing after surgery.These benefits are also linked to reducing the "health gap" between rich and poor. A recent report in the British medical journal The Lancet (there are many others!) determined Green Space reduces the "health gap" between rich and poor.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/health/7714950.stm
FHC SAYS: Not everyone has a cottage or an out of town vacation. Public open space is free!
Many of Halifax residents live in apartments and don’t own cars, are seniors or students and live on fixed incomes.
Bill 204
In order to be able to SELL the Common, HRM requires an Act of the Legislature, Bill 204.
An Act to Enable the Transfer of Lands Necessary for the Expansion of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre
At Law Amendments FHC stated:
The Act to enable the selling of part of the Halifax Common does not respect the 1763 vision of King George III nor the 1994 vision of citizens and Halifax city staff who developed the Halifax Common Plan.