Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Peter Kelly is calling it a “milestone for the community.”
Halifax is set to cash-in this morning as all three levels of government will be on hand for what is being dubbed a major infrastructure announcement at the Spring Garden Road Memorial Public Library at 9 a.m.
A new central library for Halifax is widely expected to be the big news coming from the morning media conference, featuring federal Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure John Baird, Premier Darrell Dexter and Kelly.
“All I can say is the details are being worked out as we speak,” Kelly said yesterday, refusing to talk specifically about what is being announced. “We’ll have the details hopefully by (this morning).”
“It’s probably a good hint,” he added when asked if people should draw their own conclusions based on where the event is taking place.
In April, the municipality listed a new downtown Halifax library as one of the “shovel-ready” projects they wanted to see get funding from the federal government and its money-rich Building Canada Fund.
The price tag of a new library would be in the tens of millions of dollars.
“A lot of work and discussions have taken place over the last few months,” Kelly said in reference to the announcement.
“About five weeks ago I was in Ottawa to meet with Minister (Peter) MacKay and Minister Baird on many issues of infrastructure and programs. This (announcement) was also one of them at that time.”
The Spring Garden Road library was built in 1951. At 38,000 square feet and with over 228,000 titles, it remains the largest branch in the region.
But the building has been experiencing problems in recent years, including mould and forced shutdowns this summer due to extreme heat, leading to a lot of talk about the need for it to be replaced.
