Nova Scotia’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing John Lohr is looking to amend the Housing in the Halifax Regional Municipality Act. 

During Thursday’s House of Assembly proceedings, the minister suggested making changes to development bylaws across the province in order to speed up the building of new housing.

“The province is in the midst of a housing crisis like we’ve never seen before,” Lohr says. 

Policies have not kept up with the changes in the housing landscape and has caused developments to be denied or severely delayed, Lohr says, referencing Beaver Bank Road development.

“These amendments are about removing barriers and speeding up development where it is needed for the benefit of all residents,” Lohr says.

These amendments come after Bill 329 amendments received criticism from the Halifax Regional Municipality when they were introduced last month.

The bill, which passed during the fall legislative session, will give the housing minister the power to approve development in HRM without consultation from regional council or community councils, as outlined in the bill. 

Leader of the Liberal Party Zach Churchill says this could lead to favouritism with the provincial government having the ability to make decisions on which developers get certain projects.

“We’ve seen this happen with the PC government in Ontario,” Churchill says. “The legislation that was moved in Ontario allowed the minister to engage in favouritism and overrule local decision making and local planning.”

Leader of the NDP Claudia Chender says the housing minister should not have the authority to dismiss housing experts input.

Chender says “alarm bells should go off” when other orders of government can be overridden and decisions can be made behind closed doors.

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