HRM by Design: Stick to the Plan
HRM Council should not approve plan amendments that would allow the 48-storey Skye Development to proceed.
Downtown Starts Here
For one brief moment in November, all of the citizens, political leaders of all stripes, business people, and media stood together, as one, and celebrated the winning of the massive shipbuilding contract. In the days that led up to the announcement, the contract was being heralded as a once-in-a-generation game changer. Traditional and social media were all a-twitter with the “Ships Start Here” pride building campaign, which got a whole lot of free publicity when the Federal government denounced it as a waste of NS taxpayer money, even spawning innumerable parody slogans. We all agreed then, and I think agree now, that the shipbuilding contract will be a benefit to Halifax and Nova Scotia. But how large of a benefit will it be? How much will it benefit downtown?
The Taxman Doesn’t Play Fair
The following originally ran as an editorial in the November 2011 issue of Halifax Magazine.
Why do businesses that stay downtown pay larger tax rates that subsidize their competition?
By Paul MacKinnon, executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission
Think of the Chinese restaurant King’s Palace (great egg rolls!) on Quinpool Road. Now picture Costco, in Bayers Lake. Did you know that King’s Palace pays almost five times more per square foot in taxes than Costco? Is that fair? Just keep that in mind and read on.