Council Recommends No Appeal of Nine District Decision

Council is saying there will not be an appeal of the nine district decision of the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board. But they will meet with representatives of the seven villages of Kings County prior to a final decision on August 2.

Yesterday at Committee of the Whole the UARB ruling was accepted despite the Warden media comments that lead to the headline: "Council mulling over an appeal".

After much posturing about the need to wait to discuss the decision behind closed doors at noon with legal counsel (Kevin Latimer) it was decided to move ahead with a debate. The intent at that point was that the lawyer would attend and answer councillors' questions in open chambers. Meanwhile Chief Administrative Officer Tom MacEwan had communicated with Mr. Latimer by email to relate council's decision to discuss the issue openly.

Subsequently, Mr. Latimer sent an email declining the opportunity to provide his opinions in open chambers. The end result was a 10 to 1 vote to recommend acceptance of the UARB decision, with Councillor Atwater providing the dissenting vote.

It was, in my opinion, unnecessarily complicated to get to this point. The recommendation to accept the UARB decision to have nine districts in the upcoming election goes to the regular council meeting scheduled for 6PM on August 2, for final debate and voting.

It is notable that later in the day the CAO and the Warden got messages from the Chair of the Greenwood Village Commission requesting a meeting with council regarding the UARB decision prior to the final vote on August 2.

The villages had not indicated to council as a whole, any particular interest in the UARB decision prior to yesterday's debate and recommendation.

Funding Announced by Honourable Scott Brison at Halls Harbour

The Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament for Kings – Hants, was in Halls Harbour this morning to make a very welcome funding announcement. 

A smiling Charles and Sylvia Skerry with Scott Brison

The Harbour's share of the approximately $47 million in harbour improvement projects will pay for replacement of a wharf on the western side of the harbour that docks several boats. The wharf leads from the sluice gate to the board walk. Funding will also be used for a necessary retaining wall between the wharf and the highway. 

The province will also be contributing and the work will be tendered soon. Construction is planned to begin in October 2016 with completion by early summer 2017. Minister Brison noted that the commercial fishery at Hall’s Harbour lands over $1.9 million annually and is home to 12 vessels. Applications for funding is managed by a harbour authority, ably chaired by Charles Skerry. And who is it that said: "behind every great man is an equally great woman?" In Charles' case that woman is Sylvia Skerry. We are very fortunate in Kings-Hants to have a hard-working M-P and the hard-working volunteers of the Halls Harbour Authority. It's an enthusiastic combination of talent. 

Hats off to everyone... And safe fishing to the many crews who brave the highest tides in the world to ensure our fishery remains the great economic engine it is for valley communities.

Halls Harbour photos --- come get a few more of your own

Other than Peggy's Cove are photos of any other place in Nova Scotia used as frequently for cover shots? 

Whether it's showing the low or the high tide photos of Halls Harbour grace Nova Scotia's tourist guides and publications of all other sorts. 

The part of the wharf shown here is to be rebuilt with construction starting at the end of this year's tourist season. 

Volunteers are also completing work to ensure that a small, non-commercial wharf on the approach to the harbour will soon be ready for increased by the community and its many visitors. 

A big thanks is due to those across the county who tirelessly work to ensure our county's amenities are the best they can be! Do you know that the general maintenance in Halls Harbour, from flower boxes to the placement and emptying of garbage cans, is done by volunteers? You all know who you are but I bet visitors from other parts of Canada and the world would never guess that fact.

Without you, and people just like you in many other communities, there would be no grant applications, no "free to the community" labour and skills, and a lot less reason to get out and about in Kings County!

Council's Decision "Insensitive to Communities" Board Rules

Today the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board published its decision on the number of districts that Kings County will have in the upcoming October election. 

It ruled against council's proposal of eight districts in favour of the consultant's recommendation of nine districts. 

If the board's ruling stands Centreville, Meadowview and Aldershot will be included in a new District 2 (the light blue area highlighted in the map below). This new District 2 will also include North Kentville (approximately 1,686 voters) in addition to 2,413 voters from the old District 3. Halls Harbour and District will become part of the district to the west (shown below in green).

The ruling lists many reasons for why council's decision was rejected including that: "The Board saw the eight polling district scenario developed by the CAO as being almost entirely insensitive to communities of interest." 

The full ruling can be accessed here: Kings Decision but here is some of what the ruling contains.

The board commented at length on why it ruled against council's proposal. Interestingly, several sections question the motivation of those voting for the CAO's recommendation and how the recommendation came to be:

"...whether Deputy Warden Hirtle told Mr. MacEwan to prepare a new scenario after the Stantec Report was first presented to Council on November 17th (as Mr. Hirtle, in effect, said he did), or whether he did not (as Mr. MacEwan says) - Mr. MacEwan did immediately begin preparing Alternate 8 within hours after Council (including Mr. Hirtle) first saw the Stantec Report." The report notes that the Alternate 8 district proposal provides the Deputy Warden will a better scenario for his district in the upcoming election. 

"With respect to the matter of polling districts it appears from the minutes, and other evidence before the Board, that Stantec’s recommended nine-polling district scenario was not presented to Council to be debated and voted upon. Instead, Deputy Warden Hirtle and Councillor Atwater simply moved the adoption of Mr. MacEwan’s Alternate 8.That motion was carried by a vote of 6:5, with Warden Diana Brothers, Deputy Warden Brian Hirtle, and Councillors Atwater, Lloyd, Best and Ennis voting in favour. The five councillors voting in opposition were Councillors MacQuarrie, Muttart, Raven, Bishop, and Winsor."

The Board also stated "several concerns with the Alternate 8 scenario assembled by Mr. MacEwan." These included:

• "In response to questioning from the Board, Mr. MacEwan testified that this was his first attempt at developing a municipal boundary scenario. He had no prior experience, whatsoever, in conducting such an exercise. He had left his private legal practice four years earlier to become the Municipality’s CAO, his first venture into municipal administration."
• "Further, Mr. MacEwan stated that he developed the Alternate 8 scenario on his own, without any input from anyone else. By his own admission, he intentionally avoided attending any of the three public consultation meetings held by Stantec. If he had attended those meetings, he would have had some opportunity to learn the views of the public with respect to the various scenarios."
• "Moreover, Mr. MacEwan created his suggested model in the matter of a couple of hours, with the primary emphasis on polling districts having both rural and urban components, and simply moving blocks of electors in one direction or the other to address relative parity of voting power. In his testimony, he added that creating districts with urban and rural parts would help balance the geographic size of the districts."
• "Indeed, while in the Board’s experience the task of drawing municipal boundary scenarios has, typically, proven to be very challenging for both municipal administrators and consultants alike, Mr. MacEwan testified that he was confident he could develop his own scenario, and communicated this fact to Mr. Heseltine, even before he embarked on the work. As a result, upon leaving the Valley Waste meeting in the morning, he 'went back to the office and just rearranged the data sheets'. In his view [stating]...'it’s not difficult to move things around. Because you can only move numbers around that are close to each other. ... It’s not complicated...'"
• "...Having reviewed all of the evidence, the Board finds that Mr. MacEwan’s Alternate 8 scenario seriously offends, in at least two ways, one of the important requirements of s. 368(4) of the MGA, that being to reflect communities of interest in the municipal unit."

Paddling the Jijuktu'kwejk

The launch of a new group in Kings County is under discussion. The group settled on the name Jijiktu'kwejk at its first meeting. The name means "Narrow River" and was the name used by the Mi'Kmaq prior to the colonization of Nova Scotia by Cornwallis. It isn't too hard to pronounce, you can come to the next meeting and find out how. In the meantime, some offer the phonetic "Gee-Gee-Wok-Tuk".

Nick Hill draws our attention to an observation along the way

Pre-colonial, the river and its watershed would have been in a drinkable, fishable and swimmable state. The initial group of about 25 people are focused on restoring the river and its watershed to that condition.

On June 18, four canoes and a kayak traveled from Lovett Road to Meadowview with 7 adults and 5 children. It was a great way to experience that stretch of the Jijiktu'kwejk first hand and to get some sense of the task ahead. It was a wonderful recreational experience in need of more repetition.

It was a leisurely trip with some obstacles along the way. See some photos below. Many thanks to Joe Benjamin at the Meadowview Community Centre for his kind welcome at the end. The washrooms were great :)

We will report our initial impressions at the second meeting of the group set for June 26 at the Annapolis Valley First Nations (1PM). If you have an interest in joining this group please get in touch. Everyone with a love of the natural environment and who could help work toward the restoration of the watershed is very much welcome. 

The quality of the water looked different as we traveled along

We experienced 3 spots were navigation was blocked by logs

The banks differed. Here there were trees, ferns and shade

There was evidence of cattle grazing right to the banks

There was little current, many narrow turns and shallow spots

 We packed up at Meadowview after the 4-hr paddle.

What does "2444 RCACC" mean to you?

For me it's happy faces, team work, meaningful challenges and advancement for youth aged 12-18 years. 2444 RCACC is the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corp stationed at Camp Aldershot. I attended the Annual Ceremonial Review this June and was thrilled to meet so many cadets who were benefiting immensely from their participation in the cadet program.

Sergeant Adams 2444 Royal Canadian Army Cadet

The commanding and visiting officers, legion members and other guests in attendance were very impressed by these young men and women on parade.

The thrills of the day truly began as I traveled to booths to speak directly with cadets at the displays they had produced to outline what enrollment in cadets can offer. That includes summer learning opportunities and travel as well as employment that provides an opportunity for cadets to save for post-secondary education.

Sergeant Adams and his Commanding Officer Mandy Forbes are hopeful recruitment night at Camp Aldershot on Wednesday September 7 will bring many new recruits from the nearby communities of Centreville, Aldershot, Meadowview, North Kentville, etc.

It's Your Money. Keep Your Eyes on It

On May 30 pockets became lighter as municipal tax bills got paid. Valuable things happen with tax dollars. Some of those things we don't think about much, like sewer services. Other things we wish we had more of, like sidewalks.

Your community development association had their eyes on last year's tax bill. The result? Taxes for Centreville street lights were removed from your tax bill for this and subsequent years. The $20 charge paid by each household over several years was in excess of what was needed. When this cost returns in a few years time it will be less per year. A small thing, but significant, because it demonstrates the value of keeping eyes open when it comes to tax bills.

Each year I push to scrutinise every line of the county's budget. Why? I want to do a more thorough job of looking after your municipal tax dollar. In Kings County, department managers have to justify only changes from the previous year's budget. The assumption is that the “baseline” is automatically approved in advance of any examination by elected officials.

I've asked council to do a “zero-based” budget where every line item of the budget, not only the changes, must be approved. At a minimum this should be done at least once in each 4-year session of a council, in my opinion. The resistance by the top dogs in our council to opening up the entire budget to discussion has shocked me. Our experienced and talented finance staff could easily manage such a task if they were permitted. I believe more effective uses of taxes could be found in a number of areas and that program adjustments could be made to better serve us all. I could be proved wrong. If we could get to zero-based budgeting we'd all see if improvement is possible, or not.

Here are three key concerns my eyes are on.

1. For the past four years Kings County has been significantly below the average for rural municipalities on a liquidity score (average is 3.2 while Kings is 1.6).* Kings is also below the average when it comes to operational reserves (average is 47.8 percent while Kings is 16.7).**
2. A huge burden is being placed on Kings County taxpayers regarding capital reserves. We are paying four times the amount of the average rural municipality. Despite this the county hasn't been able to figure out how to catch up on needed sidewalks for many communities, including Centreville.
3. Our sewer rate per household has soared in the last 10-years (from $200 to $460). Local engineers and developers are questioning the reason given for these hikes and are calling for a review of our capital program. They ask why are we seeking to replace sewer lines they say have 50 plus additional years of useful life.

*Liquidity is defined by Municipal Affairs Finance Department as "a key short term financial performance score" where "low liquidity scores can indicate a cash flow problem, and may indicate concern in other areas such as revenue collection."

Here are three areas I think we can take pride in:

1. Relative to other municipalities a small but significant amount is returned in grants to community organizations. When this money is used in conjunction with volunteer hours we see each tax dollar magnified in ways that add valuable infrastructure to our communities.
2. The county continues to strengthen the tax shelter available to lower income home-owners. This helps keep home-ownership affordable for struggling seniors and others on small or fixed incomes.
3. Commercial and residential tax rates have not increased for several years.

A municipal election will be held on October 15. Either 8 or 9 councillors plus a Mayor will be responsible for the next budget. Will it be a zero-based budget? Will you ask this question of any Mayor candidate that knocks on your door? Among current councillors, Peter Muttart, District 2, is the only councillor who has declared as a candidate for Mayor. He can be contacted at 902.670.6429 if you have questions for him on this or any other matter. His campaign literature for councillor last October heralded skill and promise. His performance in chambers since his success in the byelection has been exemplary.

With brave new leadership we can ensure that no more than the right amount of money comes out of your pocket. It's been said taxes create civilised society by providing services communities as a whole need. I believe that. But taxes are only as good as the use they are put to and your attention to who controls the purse strings is greatly needed.