Mayor calls for better communication after Halifax approves bar’s patio, rips up sidewalk

Halifax construction is interfering with a popular pub’s plan to open its patio for the warm weather.

Halifax’s mayor and the councillor for the downtown area say City Hall needs to do better at coordinating and communicating about construction projects.

With patio season around the corner, The Old Triangle in downtown Halifax was thrilled to finally receive approval to build its own again this year.

“Unfortunately, this year it took about two-and-a-half weeks to get the approval done, which was quite a bit longer than normal,” says Brendan Doherty, the bar’s owner.

But that became the least of his concerns.

The approval came on Monday, but so did bad news.

“As we were getting that letter (of approval), I got a text from one of my staff saying the city was removing the sidewalk,” Doherty says. “That was Monday afternoon, and here we are Friday morning, and nothing’s been done since.”

The uncertainty meant the crew and the trucks that were booked to build the patio next week had to be cancelled.

“It’s a lot of logistics building a patio in downtown Halifax,” he says. “We were going to start Tuesday morning, and now we don’t know when we’re going to start because the last I heard, this project was going to be completed two days ago.”

Area councillor Laura White says improvement from City Hall is a must.

“I would be frustrated, too,” says White. “I think we do need to have some better communication between work groups here in HRM. We are fairly siloed.

“I think we could get better at communicating with each other and then back to community.”

Mayor Andy Fillmore agrees change is necessary, saying he’s heard “valid” concerns from businesses about construction.

“These are public infrastructure projects, but the issue isn’t the work itself,” he says in a statement to CTV News Atlantic. “The issue is how it’s being coordinated and communicated - that’s where we need to do better.”

For Doherty, that’s the source of the frustration.

“Maintenance has to happen, I understand that,” he says. “You’d think there’d be some sort of coordination within the city to accommodate that, so that they’re not giving us approval at the same time they’re starting a construction project of their own.

“It’s just frustrating.”

In a Zoom interview, Halifax Regional Municipality spokesperson Jake Fulton says some bricks on the Bedford Row sidewalk were damaged and posed a tripping hazard – a problem that was discovered during patio inspection.

But staff who issue the permits and the public works crew responsible for sidewalk repairs weren’t in lockstep.

“We had intended to get the work done before patio construction could take place,” says Fulton. “Just unfortunately, the timing didn’t line up this time.

“I believe there may have just been a bit of a miscommunication and or a scheduling - one team moved faster than expected, basically.”

Fulton says the work will be wrapped up by the end of Tuesday.

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