REQUEST FOR DECISION

SUBJECT: Facilitated Discussion Concerning Yarmouth Consolidation

RECOMMENDATION: That Town Council submit, in concert with the Municipality of the District of Argyle and the Municipality of the District of Yarmouth, a formal request to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for the Province of to coordinate a facilitated session between the said Councils, to discuss the potential consolidation of the three Municipal Units, such session to be held within the next 45 days.

CAO Comments: Structure of local government has been a continuous discussion since the very beginning to the establishent of local government in Nova Scotia. Many studies have been conducted, and some changes have occurred, usually out of necessity.

The discussion is not new to . In 1993 the three municipalities were discussing amalgamation, and ultimately decided on focusing on increasing our shared services, while maintaining our municipal independence.

Over 25 years later, we have more intermunicipal agreements than perhaps any other county. We have enjoyed successes, but have also found weaknesses in our partnerships. As we have become more experienced, and our communities have changed over the years. New agreements are needed and establishing renewed partnerships is complex and resource consuming work.

With the recent successful consolidation initiative in Windsor/West Hants, that will lead to the creation of a single municipal unit as of April 1, 2020, it may be time to have another look at whether combining our municipalities into one may bring about benefits worth pursuing.

The idea of a facilitated discussion is to come together as three councils, with the assistance of an independent facilitator to learn about municipal structural change experiences in other NS Municipalities, understand the consolidation process, discuss our motivations, questions, and expectations, and ultimately determine the interest and will to consider moving forward.

REPORT/DOCUMENT

DETAILS Background

Municipal Government has been reviewed, formally, many times since 1947. In all cases, recommendations for simplified approaches to municipal government in Nova Scotia were called for.

• Angus L. Macdonald Provincial-Municipal Conference (1947) • Reorganization of Provincial-Municipal Relations in Nova Scotia aka Rowat Report (1950)

• Local Government in the Changing Economy of Industrial Cape Breton (1968)

• County Municipal Coordination Study (1969)

• The Evolution of Municipal Government in Nova Scotia 1749-1973 (1973)

• Graham Commission Report (1974)

• Task Force on Local Government (1992)

• Towns Task Force (2012)

• Provincial-Municipal Fiscal Review (2013)

• Now or Never: An Urgent Call to Action for Nova Scotians aka OneNS/Ivany Report (2014)

In 1993 the three municipalities were discussing amalgamation, and ultimately decided on focusing on increasing our shared services, while maintaining our municipal independence.

Over 25 years later, we have more intermunicipal partnerships than perhaps any other county. We use a variety of types of boards/committees to oversee the execution of the partnerships. Each of these boards/committees require administration, governance, financial oversight and legal support to varying degrees. The organizations each incurr costs for audits, accounting, legal and insurance. Each operates under its own strategy, within its authority, but may not align with municipal priorities and realities.

Examples of the types of structures include:

• Advisory Committees

• Municipal Corporations

• Companies

• Societies

The municipal partnerships have served their purposes, but as agreements are coming due for renewal, they are proving more difficult to renew. Through our many years of partnering, we have created many variations of our agreements in order to improve effectiveness, efficiency, governance, accountability, transparency, etc. In addition, changes in our communities have affected our taxbases and populations differently, giving rise to concerns about fairness of funding formulae. Finally, our frame of reference has changed; when we had few intermunicipal agreements, every new agreement was a successful, but now that we have many agreements, our standard for what is a successful agreement has become much higher. As our intermunicipal relationships have become more complex with more shared services, managing the relationships has become more time consuming and complex. It is estimated the 3 CAO’s currently spend up to 40% of their time dealing with matters related directly to intermunicipal agreements and negotiations.

It may be fair to say that we are doing as well as we can through shared services, as we have known them, and it is time to look at new approaches to serving the taxpayers of our county. Ideas such as amalgamation were discussed over 25 years ago, but set aside in preference for shared services. The time may be right to re-visit the discussion on forming one municipal unit, perhaps through consolidation, and take our partnerships to an entirely different level.

The province of Nova Scotia has resources, and is willing, to support a facilitated discussion among the municipal units in Yarmouth County around consolidation. The motion proposed is intended to indicate Council’s willingness to participate in the initial discussion.

Response Options: a)Approval b)Reject c)Refer back to staff with direction for more information

IMPLICATIONS OF RECOMMENDATION

General: Agreeing to ask the province to support a facilitated discussion between the three municipal units will provide us with additional information, and allow all parties to make a better informed decision on whether consolidation is something we wish to pursue.

Agreeing to participate in a facilitated discussion does not commit council to anything further.

Organizational: If the motion is approved, the CAO will work with colleagues and the province in coordinating the date/time and any details around the session.

Financial There should be no cost to the Town.

Follow-Up Actions: Council’s decision will be communicated to MODY and MODA as well as the Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Communication: Our Communications Coordinator will work with Mayor Mood and our partners to ensure the intent of this decision is to agree to a facilitated meeting to discuss consolidation and NOT a decision to move forward with consolidation.

Other Comments

Submitted by: CAO