The latest candidate to throw his hat in the ring for mayor wants to break up the Halifax Regional Municipality.

While announcing his candidacy at the Halifax Marriott Waterfront hotel Tuesday afternoon, former Cape Breton City councilor Vince Hall committed to lowering taxes and reducing the city’s crime rate if he’s elected mayor of the HRM.

He’s also talking about putting an end to amalgamation.

“In fact, I believe that council should hold a plebiscite to coincide with this October election to learn the people’s view on amalgamation,” he says. “Rural areas feel left out, suburban bigbox sprawl has hollowed out our downtown cores and taxes are too high, and programs and services have suffered. This model of government has not worked. It needs to be challenged.”

Hall is proposing that the Halifax Regional Municipality be divided into two separate municipalities.

“I believe that the public is not satisfied with the current model of government,” he says. “So what I believe we need, is an urban municipality and a rural municipality, and break it up in that fashion.”

This isn’t Hall’s first stint with municipal politics. He served as city council for district four in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality from 1997 to 2008. In September 2008, Hall announced he would not be seeking re-election.

During his reign as city councilor for district four in CBRM, Hall came under scrutiny on several issues including two impaired driving convictions. While speaking in Halifax today, Hall also acknowledged he was absent for many council meetings.

“In retrospect, I was dealing with some issues in my personal life and in retrospect, perhaps I should have taken a leave of absence for a few months,” he said. “I failed to do that and I tried juggling too many balls at the same time.”

Hall currently works at the IWK Health Centre as a youth counselor.

He is the sixth candidate to officially join the race for mayor. Others include former Liberal MP Mike Savage, entrepreneur Fred Connors, former Halifax police officer Tom Martin, taxi driver David Boyd and Dalhousie University student Matt Worona.