Windsor's mayor and chief administrative officer want to keep the dialogue open when it comes to amalgamation and annexation.
Mayor Paul Beazley and CAO Louis Coutinho were the guest speakers at an old-fashioned town hall meeting at the West Hants Historical Society Feb. 2. While there, they stressed the importance of more equitable models of governance.
“One of the things that our council has heard, and has heard loud and clear, is that residents are maxed out on taxes. They don't think that they should be paying one cent more on taxes — and our taxes are pretty high,” said Coutinho near the beginning of the meeting.
Even if the town holds its tax rate, Coutinho said they have no control over household assessments, which for most homeowners this year, increased.
Coutinho and Beazley attended the meeting to answer any questions about the town's recent change to the Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS).
On Jan. 24, town council amended the strategy to include the terms amalgamation and annexation as possible tools they could use in the event that substantial financial and planning improvements fail.
West Hants Warden Richard Dauphinee pleaded with council to reconsider accepting the MPS changes until after Windsor and West Hants councils could meet to discuss the issues at hand. His suggestion didn't come to fruition.
No one from West Hants council attended the Feb. 2 meeting.
During the meeting, Windsor's CAO said the best way to combat high taxes is by collaborating more with neighbouring municipalities. Unfortunately, he said, towns throughout the province are struggling to do this.
“(When) you look at other towns across Nova Scotia you will find that there is a huge disparity between towns and rural counties,” he said. “This disparity is not something that the towns created. It's a formula that the province has established.”
Coutinho said the disparity encourages people to live on the outskirts of town, benefiting from West Hants' low taxes while enjoying the comforts of town living. This, he said, needs to stop in order for everyone to pay their fair share.
While the Towns Task Force grapples with the issues facing towns today, the CAO told the audience that council opted to take a pro-active approach.
“For too long, it was the elephant in the room. No body wanted to speak about these things because they were afraid of offending somebody but these are the things that impact our town in a big way,” Coutinho said.
“It's time to have a frank conversation.”
Windsor can’t work as an island
While only a handful of residents attended the Feb. 2 meeting, the CAO and mayor discussed the issue with them for well over an hour.
“Our Municipal Planning Strategy is for our citizens — the citizens of the Town of Windsor. It's the road map for where we go in the future,” said Beazley when he took the floor.
He said he's known for years that something has to change in order for the entire region to be prosperous.
“The one thing I've heard in the last three years more than anything is that we can't continue the way we're continuing because the status quo is just not acceptable for the citizens of the Town of Windsor,” he said. “Commercial and residential taxes, people are at their breaking point. It's time for a change.”
“For too long, it was the elephant in the room. No body wanted to speak about these things because they were afraid of offending somebody but these are the things that impact our town in a big way. It's time to have a frank conversation.” - CAO Louis Coutinho
Beazley said not one Windsor resident has approached him opposed to the changes contained within the MPS.
“I'll go on the record and say it's time to start talking about amalgamation. It's time to look to the future, 20 years down the road, and the changes to the Municipal Planning Strategy reflects that,” he said.
“We've been trying to share for years and years and years and years. This is nothing new. We've always tried to share. It's not a matter of just sharing anymore. It's a matter of structurally changing the way that we do business in this community.”
Beazley said a big part of the problem is that the town's boundaries have not grown, and development restrictions have been placed on low-lying land due to the Agricultural Marshland Conservation Act.
“Back when the horse and buggy was going, it was a long way out to the town limits and there was nothing out there. The Lawrence farm used to have cows and corn and everything else. Now there's McDonalds and all these other things out there,” he said.
He said the boundary has made Windsor almost an island.
“We can manage our town as an island. We can continue to try to do the things that we can do — patch the roads and put in the infrastructure — as an island, as a small group of 3,700 people. But, the reality is if you're going to try and run that business, your costs are going up, which means your taxes are going up, which means more and more people are going to look to get out,” he said.
“Realistically, we should have started talking about amalgamation 10 years ago, or some form of restructuring whereby services are changed and there's more cost-sharing.”
Beazley said while it's “painful for some to hear the words amalgamation and annexation,” those are the tools that towns have to use to try to grow.
Beazley pointed to Halifax as an example. The city annexed various communities before amalgamation was achieved.
“With the Towns Task Force coming on board, (and) more and more people talking about amalgamations and annexations, the momentum is starting to change,” Beazley said.
With 55 municipalities in the province, Beazley said it's time to pare down some of the excess in order to operate more efficiently.
“The other 53 (municipalities) outside of HRM and CBRM have over 400 municipal representatives,” he said, noting that Hantsport, Windsor and West Hants have a total of 22 representatives.
“HRM is going to have 17. We're going to have 22. We're going to have three municipal offices. We're going to have three public works departments. We're going to have three sets of administrative services,” he said, noting that HRM encompasses a much larger population.
“Does it make sense for a population of 17,000 to have that type of governance? I say no,” he continued. “Our council is moving toward changes. It's time to take a look at it.”
