September 9, 2021

Shifting the Waste Burden: Municipalities to Producers

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 […]

Municipal Planning Appeals: Defying the Odds

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 […]

October 29, 2020

10 Certain Steps to Better Municipal Council Meetings

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.

October 23, 2020

Nova Scotia restructuring facilitates economic growth, better services.

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.

New Brunswick Update: Notice Now Required to Sue a Municipality

On January 1, 2018, the Province of New Brunswick repealed the Municipalities Act and replaced it with the Local Governance Act.

Municipal Conflict of Interest Workshop

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.