WATCH ABOVE: Plans to provide free wireless internet access to downtown Halifax and Dartmouth will be discussed at Halifax Regional Council.
HALIFAX – The downtown cores of Halifax and Dartmouth will be one step closer to getting free Wi-Fi after regional council meets on Tuesday.
City staff will ask councillors for approval to move ahead with the process of selecting a group to implement and manage a free wireless network. If granted, staff will put out a request for proposals from companies or groups that want to implement and manage the Wi-Fi program.
The idea for free Wi-Fi zones came from public consultations where the city was looking for ideas to improve the downtown.
District 8 Coun. Jennifer Watts said the program would give residents more flexibility in using public space.
“One of the really interesting things that’s happening right now both in the university community and I think generally in business is this idea of having a learning common where its unstructured people are mixing and matching it up,” she said.
“You have people not so shut away in their offices and I think this is an extension of that. It moves it out into the public space in a much broader way.”
The goal is to have wireless access available on the Dartmouth and Halifax waterfronts by the spring. Other areas slated to get access are Ochterloney. Barrington, and Argyle streets, Alderney Landing, the Dartmouth Common, and Grand Parade.
Off-leash dog park proposal
WATCH ABOVE: City staff propose field at Mainland Common for new off-leash dog park.
Another item on council’s agenda is the latest recommendation from staff to replace the Africville off-leash dog park.
The city set a deadline of Dec. 31 to open a replacement park.
The staff report outlines a number of different options, but the only one that would be ready by that deadline is at the Mainland Common.
If council goes ahead with the recommendation, the fenced-in warm-up field at the Mainland Common, accessible via Westridge Drive, would be converted into an off-leash dog park. The wooded area adjacent to the field would also be fenced in and incorporated into the park in the spring.
Councillors will give their input on the proposal, and if it’s approved it would go to public consultations. Watts said the field at Mainland Common was suggested at meetings over the summer, and people “seemed open” to the idea.
“It’s in an area where there are walking trails and many other facilities as well,” she said. “So I don’t know all the pros and cons of it but it seems to be a reasonable alternative, and again it would be really important to have the public consultation feedback on the site.”
The staff report also noted that “virtually all” of the people who attended public consultations on closing the Africville dog park drove there.
Surplus lighthouses report
WATCH ABOVE: City staff will be at council to answers questions about a report on surplus lighthouses in the municipality.
Following a request from Coun. Steve Adams, city staff will be at council to answer questions about a report addressing the different options for Halifax’s lighthouses following a 2010 federal government decision to divest what it termed “surplus lighthouses” — lighthouses no longer used for marine safety that the government no longer wants to spend money on maintaining.
Adams requested the original report as part of his push to have council set up a $1-million fund for community groups and other organizations to access if they want to take over the management of the lighthouses.
“I’m going to ask council to support the establishment of a fund to help community groups save the respective lighthouses,” he said. “I would ask for $1 million which would be about $50,000 for each lighthouse if the community groups involved could come up with a reasonable business plan and get community engagement.”
Adams said while the lighthouses no longer have commercial value, they are a valuable part of the Atlantic seaboard’s culture and history.
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