The Municipal Governance Review Steering Committee suggested the Town of Lunenburg take on a share of the committee’s costs.
The multi-phase process is estimated to cost the committee a total of $510,000 to come to a conclusion of what would be the best for all municipal units. However, the committee recommended that only a portion of that totalling $217,500 be divided among each local government represented on the committee.
Mayor Rachel Bailey says the decision was made to divide the costs among the local governments based on several criteria.
“A formula was proposed whereby certain percentages of different aspects of each municipal unit would be taken into consideration. Population, dwelling units, uniform assessment, capital assessment and staffing were all important factors in deciding what would be a fair division of the responsibility for payment. There were some percentages applied to each of those different components,” said Bailey.
It was recommended the Town of Lunenburg pay 14.8 percent of the $217,500 based on the formula.
Lunenburg council agreed to the 14.8 percent share, but voted unanimously to reject the budget of $217,500. Instead it chose a smaller portion to pay for two phases of a study that explores not just almalgamation but other options, as well as a public engagement portion of research.
Mayor Bailey says council proposes spending $57,000 on research and stresses the importance of exploring all options of municipal governance.
“We’ve done a little bit of research. And certainly it’s not been complete. We have found evidence that amalgamation is not necessarily the best outcome for us,” said Bailey
Last summer the provincial government offered up support to look into the viability of amalgamation.
However, Bailey says other options need to be explored as well.
“We certainly weren’t willing to enter into a process where that was the predetermined outcome, when we have reservations as to that being the best solution for our citizens,” stressed Bailey.
The review committee goes back to the table March 3rd.
Bailey says she hopes all of the other local governments have time to review the recommendations so next steps may be determined.
