Planner still wonders why he was fired
Bob Bjerke says he had no idea in August he was about to be fired as Halifax Regional Municipality’s director of planning and development, and still hasn’t been given a reason.
“This was completely out of the blue,” he told The Chronicle Herald in a recent interview.
Several developers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said regardless of the reason, Bjerke was simply not the right person to lead the department.
“Put it this way. I don’t think there was a wet eye out there when Bob was shown the door,” one said.
Bjerke said he could neither confirm nor deny reaching a settlement agreement with the municipality, but did say he’s free to talk.
The former chief planner admitted HRM’s planning department has a reputation for taking an inordinately long time to deal with development applications, but he said changes he helped institute were underway and were showing signs of improvement.
The developers, who wished to remain anonymous because they either have open applications with the municipality or hope to do so soon, dispute that.
They said the planning department was slow — one called it “obstructionist” — before Bjerke was hired, and all said it got worse afterward.
One developer said a project that could take six months to get approved in most other Atlantic municipalities took a minimum of two years in Halifax.
“It’s been a problem in Halifax for 30 years. It didn’t start with Bob Bjerke and it won’t end with Bob Bjerke’s firing, but certainly Bob took it to a more extreme level than it already was.”
Bjerke said after he was fired he heard from several developers who were sympathetic and praised his work in the planning department.
He also pointed to statistics presented during this year’s budget process indicating that Halifax saw an increase in development and building permits in 2016 and its processing times for most applications were below industry standards.
Wooed in 2014 from Edmonton — where he was director of housing — to modernize Halifax’s planning and development, Bjerke brought various services under one department and convinced council to boost his budget to add staff.
Bjerke, who had previously been director of planning in Regina, was hired under former chief administrative officer Richard Butts, who quit in December 2015 and was replaced in September 2016 by Jacques Dube, who came from Moncton, where he had worked in economic development before landing that city’s top administrative position.
Dube did not respond to a request for an interview. An HRM spokesman said the municipality won’t comment on personnel matters.