Halifax Business Community, New Council Share Common Goals, Says Chamber President

HALIFAX — The president of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce is excited to see better representation on Halifax’s city council but he says it’s too early to tell what all the new members mean for HRM’s business community.

Seven new councilors won seats in Saturday’s election, which has dramatically shaken up the makeup and gender parity of council.
 
Patrick Sullivan expressed cautious optimism in the wake of the results but said there are still a lot of unknowns.
 
“The business community would probably say, well, we know a little bit about Mike Savage because he’s been around for two terms but we’ve got a whole new crop of people here we need to get to know, and I think to some extent they need to get to know us as well,” Sullivan says.
 
Sullivan says the chamber did get to know many of the new candidates through the election-related events it held prior to election day, and that allowed the business community to ask them some “hard questions” about things like commercial taxes and support for businesses during Covid-19.
 
“They all had good answers, so I’m really hoping they continue to see the business community as important to the municipality and we’ll continue to support them,” he says.
 
Podcast: Patrick Sullivan On Why Halifax Needs To Loosen Up And Get The Economy Going again
 
Sullivan says it’s tough to know what priorities the new council will focus on, or how it will come down on any given issue because the dynamics of any council depend on the entire group.
 
There’s a good chance, however, the new crop of councilors will shift the council further to the left of the political spectrum.
 
Between newly elected members and a few incumbents, eight council members were endorsed by the HRM’s largest labour lobby group, which pushed for a slate of progressive issues like creating more affordable housing and enacting a more robust living wage policy.
 
Many new councilors have identified these as some of their top concerns, as well, which means the council appears primed to push on more progressive issues.
 
Sullivan says he doesn’t believe that has to put council at odds with the business community.
 
He said the chamber supports the idea of creating more affordable housing in the city, as well as ensuring people make enough money to live comfortably — it just has different suggestions on how to achieve these goals.
 
“We all have a view of the final destination. We may disagree a little bit about how to get there,” he says.
 
Sullivan believes creating more affordable housing in HRM requires the municipality to speed up the approval process for developers. He says lowering taxes “at all income levels” would also mean people have more money to spend on living expenses like groceries and housing.
 
“The municipality can’t solve all the ills in society,” he says, “but we need to ensure council is approving subdivisions or approving rental accommodations or condominiums at a rate that meets our population growth. And at this point I don’t believe they are,” he said.
 
Sullivan also believes lowering the commercial tax rate could help with affordability.
 
“Can a business afford to pay their employees more? I think it depends on how much income they have,” he says.
 
“What people forget is that businesses pay a fairly significant portion of their income towards tax. You’d be shocked at some of the taxes that small businesses are paying,” he said. “It takes a lot of sales for a business to [make enough to pay their taxes], and there are a host of services that we as residents get that businesses don’t.”
 
Overall, Sullivan said it takes healthy businesses to create a healthy economy that will help everyone in the city prosper. He hopes the new council recognizes that.
 
“I’m hoping the new council will be open to having communication and conversations with the business community. And, certainly, they all seem to be very open, so I’m very excited about it,” he said.

https://huddle.today/halifax-business-community-new-council-share-common-goals-says-chamber-president/
By Trevor Nichols