December 8 Public Meeting

Build it Right movement backed by the community

On December 8, 2005 more than 250 residents Mainland North packed the auditorium at Halifax West High school for a public meeting organized by HRM. The meeting was organized to update the community on plans for the Mainland Common Recreation Centre.

During the meeting, representatives from potential user groups were given the opportunity to address Councillors Russell Walker, Mary Wile and Debbie Hum along with HRM staff that were in attendance.

At times tensions ran high during the meeting. Terry Gallagher, the city’s project manager for the new centre, was yelled at to speed up his introductory remarks. Councillor Walker was criticized and mocked by those upset that he was trying to cut off a speaker at a pre-arranged time limit.

In the end, the Councillors and HRM staff presented a two-phase plan they called option "C+", an option that called for residents to raise $8.1-million towards the facility. In spite of this no plan for fund-raising was unveiled. While HRM's meeting agenda listed the announcement of an advisory board for fundraising, the announcement never came -- likely due to a lack of suitable candidates to sit on the committee. The Build it Right group felt this was a tell-tale sign the community will not back a project they are not interested in.

In an interesting twist, Halifax West MP Geoff Regan addressed the crowd and pointed out that HRM had not yet approached him with the need for additional funds - this despite of HRM's position that a bigger facility could not be built without more money from the federal government.

In general, the vast majority of people in attendance supported the Build it Right movement and all speakers who addressed the crowd with the Build it Right message received a warm reception from the crowd.