HALIFAX — A pitch by Nova Scotia's second largest municipality to change proposed provincial legislation it contends will raise taxes for its residents failed on Monday to move the government majority on a legislative committee.
Mayor Amanda McDougall-Merrill, of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM), called for negotiations on a separate agreement on provincial funding for her municipality in an appearance before the law amendments committee.
McDougall-Merrill suggested the change be included in the Municipal Reform Act, which governs how municipalities are funded.
Provincial Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr has said the changes to what's known as the service exchange agreement, which covers 48 municipalities but not Halifax, would save them up to $50 million in annual contributions that cover such things as jail costs, maintaining unused school buildings and operating losses for public housing.
However, the mayor told the committee that her community is experiencing robust population growth and needs further help to fund services such as its transit system, which has seen 400-per-cent growth since 2016.
“We can’t do this alone," said McDougall-Merrill. "We need to have partnership with all levels of government in order to embrace that growth and do more and do better.”
She said the province did ask her municipality if it wanted a separate deal before it came forward with the legislation, but council turned down the offer because there was little detail and no consultation.
“How could we come back to council, vote on something we have absolutely no detail on, and then go to our residents and say, 'We think it’s a good idea but we can’t tell you what’s in it because we’ve had no consultation?'” she said.
McDougall-Merrill said the legislation as it currently stands would see CBRM remit $16.5 million to the province while receiving back only $15 million to help pay for services. The mayor said that deficit in funding means the municipality would have to raise taxes for its roughly 100,000 residents.
Other CBRM officials who appeared before the committee also called for a doubling of the $30 million in provincial funding, known as the municipal capacity grant, and have it indexed to inflation. The grant is used to help municipalities fund services such as transit and water and CBRM's current allocation is about $15 million.
“We currently receive about one half of the entire fund,” chief financial officer Jennifer Campbell told the committee. “We have the highest municipal tax rate in the province and by a very large margin. We do not have the taxation capacity required to address the climbing infrastructure and operating needs of our very large and growing community.”
However, the majority of the 23 speakers who submitted to the committee on Monday supported the government’s bill.
Brenda Chisholm-Beaton, president of the Nova Scotia Municipalities and mayor of Port Hawkesbury, N.S., said the bill is needed because it updates a service exchange agreement that is 30 years old.
Mayor Carolyn Bolivar-Getson, of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, said the bill’s elimination of mandatory municipal contributions from property tax revenue for correctional services alone would save her municipality just over $428,000, and would “free up those funds for municipal expenditures for initiatives.”
Supported by the Liberals, the NDP put forward amendments that mirrored those asked for by CBRM officials, however the Progressive Conservative members of the committee used their majority to return the legislation to the House of Assembly without any changes.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2023.
Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press
