Some municipal councillors are concerned dissolving the board for the Halifax Harbour Bridges will mean less awareness at a city level of what is happening with the critical infrastructure.

Part of a new bill moving through Province House would dissolve Halifax Harbour Bridges, which has been an independent Crown corporation since 1950. 

The commission would instead become part of the Link Nova Scotia Crown corporation, which handles long-term transportation planning for the Halifax area, and the entire province.

“I hope it still gets the attention it deserves in regards to having critical investments in the metro core. Without our bridges, our metro area would basically shut down,” said Coun. David Hendsbee, who has served on the commission board for nearly 20 years.

“The thing I’m concerned about, is that hopefully the projects don’t get lost in the bureaucracy.”

The nine-person board is made up of two councillors alongside community leaders or former public servants appointed by either the province or Halifax municipality. 

When the PC government removed the bridge tolls nearly a year ago, that meant a loss of about $36 million in annual toll revenue that went toward bridge upkeep. The move also added an extra $300 million to the provincial debt as Nova Scotia took over full responsibility for the bridges.

Megan Couture, a spokesperson for Link Nova Scotia, said Monday that the move is a change in reporting structure, but no bridge commission staff will lose their job, and there will be no impact on day-to-day operations.

Couture said the board dissolution would be effective upon proclamation of the Financial Measures Act, which contains the details about the bridge commission.

When asked how Halifax council and staff will be kept informed of future bridge changes, Couture said Link N.S. works collaboratively with Halifax municipal staff “frequently” on key projects laid out in the regional transportation plan.

But board member Coun. Kathryn Morse said that is often not the case.

At one of her first bridge commission board meetings in late 2024, Morse said she learned that the tolls would be coming off soon, and was the first to tell municipal staff about the change.

“It concerns me, the loss of political oversight at a time when we need more collaboration between HRM and the province,” Morse said.

Morse said she is especially disappointed that loss of oversight comes at a critical time when Halifax is dealing with congestion issues, and work is happening to replace the MacKay Bridge.

The Halifax municipality has specific transit priorities that must be kept top of mind for any new bridge, Morse said, like room for future bus lanes.

“We don’t want to get down a road too far and find out that that just won’t work for the residents of HRM, or won’t work for the bridge based on our experience,” Morse said.

“And we won’t know that, because we won’t have the oversight or the transparency we once had.”

The decision about where to build the new MacKay is also a complicated and sensitive one that has not yet been finalized. A new span would have to either use Africville land, which Premier Tim Houston has said should not happen, or could mean tearing down existing housing in the north end.

When speaking to reporters about the new bill last month, provincial staff said Link N.S. has the ability to set up an oversight board, but that has not happened yet.

Both Morse and Hendsbee said they would welcome such a board, ideally with representation from the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, other local governments, and Halifax council.

Hendsbee said the commission board will have one last meeting, likely sometime in April.

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