HALIFAX – Remember that extensive, expensive transit study that was made public a month or two back? The one I wouldn’t shut up about? Well apparently it wasn’t extensive or expensive enough.
City staff asked for more money to further study two aspects of public transit – the Access-a-Bus program and the city’s ferry service – at last night’s regional council meeting.
How much more money, you ask? Only about $69,100 [PDF]. Of course, that’s $69,100 on top of $258,200.16 already paid out to the IBI Group, the independent consulting firm behind the Metro Transit Five-Year Strategic Operations Plan [PDF]. That’s 26.76% of the value of the original contact.
Council approved.
The report, from the desk of Halifax’s Chief Administrative Officer Dan English, states that it “originates from the need for additional projects that have arisen from work completed on the Metro Transit Five-Year Strategic Operations Plan.” Or, the study determined that more study was necessary.
Which happens. Anyway, the report goes on to recommend that council approve the request for more funding, and also asks that council authorize that same IBI Group to conduct the study.
Which also makes sense. If the IBI Group conducted a supposedly comprehensive study of Halifax’s transit system, why not use that same contractor to do more in-depth and focused study?
What’s weird is the timing. Perhaps I’m a touch cynical after sitting through the recent council sessions where the transit plan was discussed; that wonderful circus of councilors being truly concerned about which bus routes will be affected (what about my riding?), Blumenthal yammering on about the olds (in his district), and all the other wonderful bullshit that comprises municipal affairs.
Or perhaps it’s the bad taste left in the mouth when staffers announce that the city is facing a $30 million deficit next year from one mouth, and ask for more money out of another. It hits too close to home. It’s like every conversation I’ve had with my father.
Maybe it’s the fact that all study and no action makes Jack a dull municipality. Either way, more study is what we’re getting. Enjoy walking this winter.
Oh, and by the way, everyone got raises. Merry Christmas.
photo by Lawrence Plug
3 comments
While I’m guessing you’re joking with the Merry Christmas quip, I don’t quite see the problem with the whole councilor salary “compensation,” since that’s what they were doing: fixing a mistake caught in a formula to calculate their salary which had resulted in them getting paid less than their contract stipulated.
http://halifax.ca/legislation/adminorders/compensation.html
Crying foul at council raises seems completely wrong-headed, in my opinion. Raising councilor salaries simply means that running for council becomes an option for anyone to attempt, despite their financial situation. Although it looks bad when, often enough, those salaries go to councilors who are already privately wealthy, keeping councilor salaries at a reasonable level is inherently more democratic because it means that anyone, irrespective of wealth, can quit their day job, sit on council, and still support a family, pay the rent, cover the grocery bills, etc.
It’s also a sign that we value the work they do and that it’s important they do it well. That’s why we pay them the big bucks!
I don’t think that was the thrust of the article. And I agree.
Optics wise, however, it’s pretty damn bad timing.
But I wouldn’t argue that councilors are over-paid, nor that they should not receive adequate compensation for the hard work they do.
I’ve always liked how traffic is reminiscent of clogged nasal passages. A plan to relieve congestion via a better transit system with more cute ferries is just the sneeze Halifax needs.