The Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation (CTF) has started a petition to put the brakes on the bike lane network in Halifax after hearing from hundreds of taxpayers.
Devin Drover, Atlantic Director of CTF told us the project has turned into a complete “boondoggle” considering the cost has ballooned to $93 million, with their supporters “overwhelmingly” opposed to it.
“You look at the numbers back in 2017 when the project was proposed. The city was promising 53 kilometers of bike lanes by 2022 at a cost of $25 million. It is now 2025, only 60 per cent of the lanes have been built, some of it only temporary…and the cost exploded,” said Drover.
Contentious issue
Bike lanes have been a hot button topic around town lately.
Halifax Council shut down a motion in June tabled by Mayor Andy Fillmore, to pause new bike lane projects not yet tendered, that would jam up traffic.
Drover said, Fillmore was doing the right thing trying to reassess.
“I was disappointed to see some of the city council vote against that motion. I think that’s a lot of the reasons we’re seeing the province trying to step in right now because they’re concerned about the perspective of the taxpayers,” adds Drover. “They’re concerned about the congestion being caused by some of these bike lanes at a time where the city is growing.”
Premier Tim Houston recently told reporters, there is a “serious, serious disconnect” between how council serves the citizens of HRM and the decisions they are making.
Houston pointed specifically to when they voted making Morris Street one way to allow room for bike lanes that run in both directions, suggesting they may even use Bill 24 to overrule the vote.
Rising taxes, congestion
Halifax is seeing rising tax rates with the most recent at 6.3 per cent -this in conjunction with the skyrocketing cost of the bike lane project, Drover said, is unacceptable.
“Government projects do have a tendency to go over budget. However, there’s very little examples that come to mind of something going nearly four times as much as this project has,” added Drover.
In addition to that, he said, with respect to the possibility of more cars being off the road as bike lanes are built, it won’t be enough to solve all congestion problems.
“If you look at census data, less than 1 per cent of Halifax residents commute to work and I don’t suspect that will change,” said Drover. “At a time where Halifax has higher property taxes than Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver, taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for overpriced infrastructure that people hardly use.”
He said the petition, at the very least, will help understand “why this is getting out of control”.
