Emails reveal the inner communication at Halifax City Hall leading up to dismantling of homeless camps

HALIFAX -

A former municipal politician is questioning the amount of power unelected officials hold at Halifax City Hall as documents provide a glimpse of what went on behind the scenes leading up to the dismantling of homeless camps over the summer.

“We have a council and a mayor and Jacques Dubé makes the decisions,” former Dartmouth Mayor and HRM Coun. Gloria McCluskey said.

Dubé holds the highest ranking unelected job at city hall as the chief administrative officer.

Several pages of the correspondence obtained through freedom of information laws and provided to CTV News were redacted, but what wasn’t redacted offers a glimpse into what went on at city hall in the months prior to Aug. 18. On that day, tense clashes between protesters and police at the former Halifax Public Library saw 24 people arrested as the city evicted people living on municipal property across the HRM.

Prior to the removal of shelters, the city hired the consulting firm OrgCode for $7,000. A city spokesperson says the group specializes in empathy-based approaches to homeless encampments and was training municipal staff and social services providers, not providing communication services.

Emails show the CAO’s office was in charge of coordinating the operations and much of the communication strategy. They were looking to spring into action as early as June, as Nova Scotia was set to ease COVID-19 restrictions. 

But by the end of June, Coun. Waye Mason sent an email to Dubé and another city staff noting pushback on social media around the belief people are being offered two weeks of hotel stay.

Mason suggested the city needs to provide more statistics on how many people were offered accommodations, "while framing it as a provincial fail,” he said in the email.

On July 5, Dubé notified regional council via email about the plans to issue eviction notices the next day. The note included Q & As to anticipated questions councillors would receive, along with key messages. Dubé said corporate communications would issue a statement to the media.

The city removed three shelters on July 9 after city staff believed they were vacant. But Halifax Mutual Aid, the anonymous group behind the shelters, told CTV News two of the shelters had been occupied. The two versions of the story caused backlash.

“We are losing the communication and education battle to the folks that put up the shelters,” Coun. Tim Outhit said in an email on July 9 to other councillors, suggesting a public lunch and learn to discuss housing issues and what the HRM has done so far.

“We should use this as an opportunity to address an issue that is obviously very important to many. I have never received this amount of email previously on any topic.”

McCluskey said she believes councillors knew more than they’ve said they did.

“They knew all about it. And he (the CAO) told them to keep it very confidential, and he wrote the questions and the answers for them,” said McCluskey.

Mayor Mike Savage said councillors knew the dismantling of shelters was imminent but didn’t know details around timing. He disagreed with the suggestion the CAO was trying to control councillor’s messaging.

“You don’t tell councillors what to say or when to say it," he said.

Coun. Sam Austin said there were plenty of opportunities for council to object to what was proposed and raise concerns.

“We didn’t because the information we had ... was that everyone was going to be given alternative accommodation.”

At the time, that didn’t happen. Service providers weren’t given a heads up and told CTV News at the time how they were left scrambling to try to track people down.

“And that’s where we failed,” Austin said.

CTV News requested an interview with Dubé but the request was denied.