In this episode host Matt Stickland comes in hot with some big opinions on Halifax's new Integrated Mobility Plan. The audio quality in parts of the first half of the show are not the best, and this podcast's original microphone has finally bit the dust.

In the second half of the show Matt goes over last Thursday's TSC meeting and even though concerns remain about the IMP there is some good news in the back half of the show

I did take the week off as threatened.

But I did throw this together for reasons I explain in the show.

Book club May 3 at the Old Triangle in Halifax.

The book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735252/the-score-by-c-thi-nguyen/

This week is a return to normalcy which is to say clipped shows.

This week starts off host Matt Stickland's opinion of this year's budget.

And then after the ad break there's a recap of the the final budget debate and last week's (mostly deferred) council meeting debates.

Also the book club book is The Score: How to Stop Playing Someone Else's Game by C. Thi Nguyen.

Please note: there will be no show next week (might re-run a classic for algorithmic gaming purposes).

It's been a full week of budget committee and a full weekend of SEDMHA hockey and a birthday party or two. Our team is taking a nap instead of writing show notes. We do hope you enjoy this week's show.

Enjoy?

Enjoy might not be the right word, but listen to the show sounds vaguely like a threat.

Listen to the show... or else.

In this episode host Matt Stickland recaps last week's council meetings, the good, the bad and the austerity.

Even by our lax standards these show notes are sub standard because there's just too much on the go in real life this weekend for a more fullsome show notes. Soz.

Man what a week that was! Mayor Andy Fillmore is on a tear during budget season and is clearly working as hard as he can to tank the city so we get a good draft pick next season. Or something. These show notes are written on Sunday, and on this particular Sunday a Canadian Hockey team lost a game so that's the end of these show notes. Bye, or whatever.

This week is a bit of an odd one, as it had five full days of council meetings and host Matt Stickland had five full days of plague in his house.

The big moves by Cleary at the end of last week's budget debate, as well as the police budgets, are not in this episode. They are in the paper this week, and will be in a later episode of the show (probably), respectively.

That's all for this week as Matt fills up on fluids and heads back to bed to try and beat this fever.

Budget season rolled on last week as councillors started debating the operational budgets of the city's various business units. Before getting into that host Matt Stickland gives a dire warning about the city's fiscal future.

After the ad break, Matt recaps the Board of Police Commissioners passion for violence, and also two days of budget committee meetings.

If you are a subscriber and notice this episode is about 6 minutes longer, you can hear the new stuff at the 30 minute mark.

As always, a reminder about the book club meeting on March 1 at 2:30 at Celtic Corner in Dartmouth. Please email matt(at)GrandParade(dot)news if you are planning to attend. I won't hold you to it, just trying to get an idea of numbers.

See you next week when we talk about the bus.