Halifax said a homeless camp contaminated the soil of a public park. A report shows that's not true
CBC
When the Halifax Regional Municipality closed homeless encampments in two downtown parks earlier this year, it said extensive remediation would be needed because people living there had damaged the sites, with contamination spreading as deep as the soil in at least one of the locations.
But a professional assessment the city received in April about the condition of Victoria Park and Grand Parade showed no soil contamination that could be blamed on the people who sheltered at those sites.
"It was false, it was wrong, and they didn't correct it," said David Wallbridge, a Halifax resident who works near Victoria Park.
The municipality closed the sites at Victoria Park and Grand Parade through February and March, saying the move was needed because the province had enough shelter spaces for people and the camps were no longer healthy or safe spaces.
Multiple public releases said human waste, drug paraphernalia and garbage were found on the sites. In reference to Victoria Park, one statement said remediation would "take several months due to the heavy use of the site as an encampment for a relatively long period of time."
The release did not say what that remediation would entail, only that it would involve the soil.
Various parks and recreation staff repeated the need for soil remediation in early March when Wallbridge inquired further about the damage at Victoria Park.
"Given the heavy use of the park over the past year much of the park will need to be resodded given the damage to the soil with various contaminants," wrote community developer Kate Moon in an email, which Wallbridge shared with CBC News.
In another email to Wallbridge, Maggie MacDonald, executive director of parks and recreation, wrote: "Resodding or hydroseeding of much of Victoria Park is required due to people sheltering there, in varying numbers, for upwards of two years. The top layer of soil through most of the park has to be removed in order to do so."
Landscaping work took place in recent months, and new soil and grass can now be seen through the fence.
Wallbridge finally received the soil report last week after filing a freedom of information request.
The April 19 report from an environmental engineer with Dartmouth-based Englobe Corp. to the parks department about Victoria Park said based on a soil test and visual observations, they "did not identify any impacts at the park attributable to the former tent encampment."
"Unfortunately, it really seems like that had the effect of perpetuating a stereotype that the people who were homeless who had to take shelter here were somehow dirty or contaminated the area — and it just wasn't true at all," Wallbridge said.
The report did find higher levels of elements like arsenic, lead and manganese in the soil, but said they are "typical" of material found on sites throughout the peninsula. The engineer said HRM could take steps to protect residents from these elements.
Premier Susan Holt says she doesn’t have an explanation for why regulators, policy experts and others responsible for gas price regulation didn’t clue in to a simple way to lower prices for consumers until the end of 2025.
The new year will be bringing with it Toronto’s first traffic czar.
For the first time in 111 years, items once belonging to the late Albert Mullins were back in the hands of his family members thanks to the detective work of one Montreal historian.
The year that saw the remains of two First Nations women brought home from a Manitoba landfill and a search get underway for the remains of a third showed how far reconciliation efforts have come — and how far they still need to go, the families say
The RCMP has just released a warning stating there are dangerous, armed individuals on Big Island Cree Nation, near Meadow Lake.
A new land-use plan that Alberta’s government has for the province’s Upper Smoky region is drawing criticism from environmentalists who say they believe it lacks sufficient environmental safeguards, which poses a significant threat to the endangered southern woodland caribou.
Canadian officials made pains to show they were cracking down on illicit drug production in the country in 2025.
A year after the City of Hamilton cancelled its overnight warming bus, it is funding a new all-night warming centre for men at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on James Street S.
This year has, without a doubt, been a turbulent one for the Canadian auto industry. Uncertainty dominated the sector — both for auto workers hit with job changes and companies trying to manage a mix of tariffs and changing market conditions.
A woman died at a ski resort in the Canadian Rockies over the weekend, after falling into deep snow.
Two pregnant women who would otherwise be living in a cold tent. A man whose leg wound was so bad it required intravenous medication. Two young people who no longer need to couch surf to get by.
The province has added 12 kilometres of designated trails for all-terrain vehicles in western Prince Edward Island that will connect existing routes in O’Leary and Tignish.
Every year, CBC North publishes hundreds of stories online — breaking news, investigative reporting, political coverage, community features, longform storytelling, and much more.