Halifax, Nova Scotia
Friday, September 4, 2026
14° · Fog lifting · Wind SW 18 km/h
Vol. 12 · No. 36 · Newsstand $3.50
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Politics · City hall
Harbour vote keeps the pier public and caps the next decade of towers
After six hours of amendments, Halifax Regional Council voted 9–6 to keep the outer pier as ungated public land, cap new residential towers at 18 storeys on the inland parcel, and require a continuous harbourwalk from the ferry terminal to the Seaport before any occupancy permit is issued. Developers already say the height cap will stall financing.
By Amira Hassan · City hall · Posted 6:40 a.m. · 12 min
Scoreboard · this week
| Side | Result | Next |
|---|---|---|
| HFX Wanderers | 1–1 vs York United | Sat, Wanderers Grounds |
| Mooseheads | Camp opens Mon. | Exhibition, Sept. 12 |
| Hurricanes (W) | Won 3–2, Moncton | Home, St. Mary’s |
| Harbour 10K | Course filed | Oct. 4, waterfront loop |
| Athletics academy | U21 2–0 vs Valley | Wed, Wanderers |
Culture
Festival grounds reopen on the Common, lawn still public on ticketed nights
Two winters after floodwater wrecked the understage, the city spent $6.1 million on French drains, a raised apron, and lighting that does not need generators humming through the North Park blocks. The operating plan that actually went to committee is simpler than the renderings: the lawn stays ungated.
By Maya Orth · Arts desk · 7 min
Seaport
Night market keeps Friday hours through September
Shed 22 vendors asked for the extra month after last year’s early shutdown cut fish-truck receipts in half.
Music
Symphony Nova Scotia files a downtown rehearsal-space lease
The Argyle hall stays. The orchestra wanted a clause that street work on Grafton cannot cancel call times.
Sightlines
Photographers map the new pier after the height cap
Eighteen storeys inland still throws a late-day shadow across the ferry queue. The outer deck does not.
Books
King’s MFA reading series moves to the old Chronicle newsroom
The Joseph Howe building’s third floor, empty since 2020, will take 80 chairs and a PA that actually works.
Opinion · Elena Morse
“You do not lease a sunset. You protect the ground people stand on to see it.”
The pier is not a blank lot
Councils love the language of activation. Activation usually means a private operator, a fence, and a plaque thanking the public for its patience. Tuesday’s harbour vote was imperfect — height caps will be litigated, financing will wobble — but the outer pier stayed public. That is not a small thing in a city that has already sold too much horizon.
Elena Morse is editor of Civic Press. She covered the 2014 Chronicle Herald buyouts from the Joseph Howe newsroom, then left. Read the editorial.
Business
Ferry operator in the black for the first time since 2021
HarbourLink reported a $1.1 million operating surplus for the year ending March. CEO Fran Okoye credited weekday commuter recovery on the Halifax–Alderney run and a winter schedule that parked one vessel without cutting peak frequency. The surplus funds dry-dock work and a pilot of contactless fare gates — not a fare cut, she said, and not a new boat.
By Lena Cho · Waterfront · 5 min
From the photo desk
Council this week
Monday
Committee of the whole: Piette’s $4.2 million transit ask
Santos wants vacant operator seats named in the motion. Three scenarios, including do-nothing with service notices in ten days.
Thursday
Housing committee: dates on three school lots
Windsor, Spryfield, Dartmouth north of Woodlawn. The Hollis parking lot is a separate term sheet. 7,400 units is not a calendar.
Sept. 22
Second reading: harbourwalk capital, $11.4 million provincial ask
The occupancy clause lives or dies here. Cameras will be thinner. Civic Press will still be in the gallery.
Letters
A2 this Saturday: MacKinnon on the fence, a Bedford reader on Grant’s no
250 words, a real name, a neighbourhood. Unsigned attacks do not run. Opinion.
Print still lands on the stoop.
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