Nova Scotia·NewNova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says provincial staff have flagged concerns with recent land-use bylaw amendments passed by Halifax regional council earlier this month. Municipal affairs minister says he will review Halifax infill restrictionsHaley Ryan · CBC News · Posted: Oct 30, 2025 6:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesNova Scotia Municipal Affairs Minister John A. MacDonald is reviewing Halifax council’s recent decision to restrict infilling of water lots in Dartmouth Cove. (Josh Hoffman/CBC)Halifax’s recent planning changes to restrict infilling in Dartmouth Cove are “ambiguous” and came about through a seemingly “pretty political” process, said Premier Tim Houston on Thursday.Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, Houston said provincial staff have flagged concerns with recent land-use bylaw amendments passed by Halifax regional council earlier this month.The province’s new municipal affairs minister, John A. MacDonald, now has about a month to accept or reject the planning changes.Houston said there is concern the motion passed by council “is ambiguous. It’s not actually coherent.”“I could guess at what certain members of council want that to say, but you know, you shouldn’t have to guess,” Houston said.MacDonald said this is not a case of the province overstepping into municipal territory. Any municipal bylaws that provincial staff have concerns about are always sent to the minister’s office for review.Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston speaking to reporters on Sept. 18, 2025. (Pat Callaghan/CBC)CBC News asked to interview Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore about Houston’s comments, but was told he was not available.Ryan Nearing, a spokesperson for Fillmore’s office, said in an email the mayor had not yet received formal notice that the changes will be sent to MacDonald for review. “We won’t comment on this case until that information is received,” he wrote.Mark Gough, a spokesperson for the Halifax municipality, said city staff are awaiting a decision from the provincial director of planning on the Dartmouth Cove amendments, “and therefore have nothing to add.”Residents and area representatives from all three levels of government have called for Halifax to limit infilling in Dartmouth Cove after a local company proposed to infill their water lot with thousands of cubic metres of rock.Atlantic Road Construction and Paving, the company behind the project, has said new places to dump pyritic slate are needed in the region, and the infill would actually improve water quality and wildlife in the cove.Transport Canada issued the company a permit to move ahead last week after the project was changed to address issues with the neighbouring Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship (COVE). The federal approval said the project’s footprint will be redesigned to accommodate vessel navigation between the infill and COVE’S floating docks.But the company still needs permission from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and any project would need to follow local municipal bylaws.Houston said the province has real concerns over jurisdictional issues with Halifax and the federal government, which is going through a scientific process to assess the infill project.“Whereas the process at HRM seems to be pretty political,” Houston said. He did not elaborate.Houston has described Tom Hickey, CEO of Atlantic Road Construction and Paving, as a close personal friend.Liberal MLA Iain Rankin said the situation is yet another case of Houston showing favouritism to his allies. “This is a problem that’s consistent, whether it’s trying to bottle grapes from outside of the province … trying to infill Dartmouth Cove, whether it’s trying to build wind farms on Crown land for potential hydrogen projects,” Rankin told reporters Thursday.Liberal MLA Iain Rankin says Houston’s remarks about Dartmouth Cove fit a pattern of decisions supporting the premier’s own friends. (Paul Poirier/CBC)“This is a pattern that this government is loyal to insiders and friends, and not protecting the public interest.”Halifax’s new rules state the only infilling activities allowed on water lots would be for public infrastructure, utilities or retaining walls.The province did not intervene when similar rules, which Dartmouth Cove changes were modelled after, were brought in for the Northwest Arm last year.NDP Leader Claudia Chender, the MLA for the Dartmouth Cove area, said it is concerning that the province approved restrictions for an area of “very wealthy residential homes” like the Arm, but is questioning the same thing for a space that is an important recreational area for people of low and moderate incomes.“This is unserviced land, it is not zoned for building, it would create a dump in the middle of a downtown urban area. This is not the way that any government should be doing business,” Chender said.Any property created by infill on that lot would be zoned as parkland, even without the new rules. Atlantic Road Construction and Paving has said it eventually hopes to see residential development on the new land.MORE TOP STORIES ABOUT THE AUTHORHaley Ryan is the municipal affairs reporter for CBC covering mainland Nova Scotia. Got a story idea? Send an email to haley.ryan@cbc.ca, or reach out on Twitter @hkryan17. With files from Michael Gorman
Premier says Dartmouth Cove infilling restrictions appear ambiguous, political
