Fillmore threatens city plans, again

Halifax Mayor’s motion to change Morris Street bike lane fails, 13 to 4

By Antonia Zwissler

Bike lanes are keeping Halifax’s city council up at night. Councillors stayed in City Hall until 11 p.m. on July 8, despite pleas for recess. Speech was slurring, focus slipping. But the issue was not to be postponed.

Halifax’s mayor Andy Fillmore wanted to kill the plan to reduce congestion by adding a bike lane on Morris Street in the South End. He failed, 13 votes to 4. The mayor, Purdy, Billy Gillis and John Young were the four losing votes.

This is the second time in one month Fillmore has tried to slow down plans to improve Halifaxians’ health and traffic congestion. The first was when he put forth a motion to pause and re-evaluate all pending bike lane projects, in the middle of construction season (which also failed). It’s a hard pivot from member of parliament Andy Fillmore’s intent to make Halifax a cycling city when he was a member of the federal Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Committee.