Written by: Kevin Latimer, KC. Facing daunting capital and operational challenges, Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) has amended its wastewater discharge bylaw to allow for cost recovery of wastewater services through a user pay model. The municipality sees this as the first step in a larger transformation. Like many Canadian municipalities, CBRM had aging wastewater […]
Written by: Kevin Latimer, KC. Four years after the consolidation of two Nova Scotia municipalities, it appears as if citizens of the new Regional Municipality of West Hants are reaping benefits. The former Municipality of West Hants and Town of Windsor had existed as neighbouring, but independent, municipalities for more than two centuries. But late […]
Now that two provincial governments have taken steps to streamline municipal decision-making on priority issues, maybe it’s time for municipal governments to consider whether, in the public interest, they themselves should examine ways to streamline other municipal processes. In both Ontario and Nova Scotia, provincial governments have dramatically changed the balance of power, ensuring that, […]
Twelve years after the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment introduced a Canada-Wide Action Plan for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), it’s time for Nova Scotia to consider shifting the burden of waste management from municipalities to producers. In a traditional waste management system, municipalities are responsible for operating waste collection and management. With EPR […]
A 10 year review of appeals of municipal planning decisions before the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB) shows that the UARB rarely overturns decisions of municipal councils and even more rarely if the appeal has been launched by interested citizens. Appeals by developers have been marginally more successful. But it would be wrong […]
There are good ways to govern, and not so good ways. Here are 10 steps that, if followed, will produce better outcomes for Municipal Council and Committee meetings.
Conventional wisdom holds that municipal consolidations facilitate economic growth and provide better services in a larger municipal unit. After the recent experience in Nova Scotia, we believe this to be true, but also recognize that securing the benefits will take both hard work and objective measurement.
This article was first published in Municipal World, Canada’s municipal magazine. NS Restructuring Offers New Model for Consolidation Nova Scotia’s first municipal consolidation in over 20 years is gaining attention as, potentially, a new model for consolidating two already stable and viable municipalities that are convinced they can achieve even more by coming together. The […]
Weed vendors and consumers will soon be legal in Nova Scotia and we wonder if municipalities are ready.
The seminar was presented to the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg on February 20, 2018 in Bridgewater, NS by Kevin Latimer and Chika Chiekwe.