{"id":57008,"date":"2025-07-17T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=57008"},"modified":"2025-07-17T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:00:00","slug":"premiers-letter-to-hrm-mayor-council-on-morris-street-bike-lane-has-tilleys-full-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=57008","title":{"rendered":"Premier’s letter to HRM Mayor, council on Morris Street bike lane has Tilley’s full support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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ENFIELD:<\/strong> Premier Tim Houston has sent a letter to HRM Mayor Andy Fillmore, CAO Cathie O’Toole, and councillors voicing his great concern over their decision to turn Morris Street into a one-way street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his letter, Houston said\u00a0eliminating one lane to add bike lanes will contribute to traffic congestion, create unnecessary public safety risks and potentially jeopardize port activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe should all be moved by the letter from Emergency Medical Care Inc. (EMCI) and their concerns about the impact on providing emergency services in the area,\u201d said Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir letter should be taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houston added in addition, the Halifax Port Authority and PSA Halifax have raised concerns that should be respected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He said simply put, \u201cit is irresponsible to prioritize bike lanes over a key economic driver for the province, which is exactly what the port is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo say that I find it disappointing that public safety and economic impact concerns have been dismissed with a simple shrug of the shoulders would be a serious understatement,\u201d said Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter is one that Public Works Minister Fred Tilley supports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to media after an announcement at Ledwidge Lumber in Enfield on Thursday morning, Tilley was asked if he supports the letter the Premier sent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he did so fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole goal of our work is to reduce traffic and reduce congestion,\u201d he said in response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to do things to increase congestion in an already congested area of Halifax.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Houston added in his letter that this spring the provincial government passed Bill 24, which provides order-making authority with respect to transportation projects in municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf HRM Council proceeds to make Morris a one-way street, the provincial government will be forced to act,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remain hopeful that common sense will prevail and Council will reverse this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houston gave a deadline of Aug. 6 for Council to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opposition Leader Claudia Chender said the Mayor, council and residents of Halifax have a process for dealing with local issues\u2014it\u2019s called municipal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor decades our province\u2019s cities and towns have listened to residents and made decisions based on what was best for their communities,\u201d said Chender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf residents are concerned about traffic congestion, the lack of safe bike lanes or any number of other issues, they can make their voices heard through their city councillor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no need for Tim Houston to interfere in that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ENFIELD: Premier Tim Houston has sent a letter to HRM Mayor Andy Fillmore, CAO Cathie O’Toole, and councillors voicing his great concern over their decision to turn Morris Street into a one-way street. In his letter, Houston said\u00a0eliminating one lane to add bike lanes will contribute to traffic congestion, create unnecessary public safety risks and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[50,8801,8542,8802,1077,2517,8803],"class_list":["post-57008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-halifax","tag-hrm-councill","tag-mayor-andy-fillmore","tag-morris-street-bike-lane","tag-nova-scotia","tag-premier-tim-houston","tag-public-works-minister-fred-tilley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}