The leaders of urban towns and municipalities from across the province met in Bridgewater this weekend to discuss how they can work together to improve their areas.
David Mitchell, mayor of the Tow of Bridgewater, says although the areas all vary in size, they share commonalities and can learn from each other.
He says the towns can also help each other with common goals and used Bridgewater’s transit system as an example.
“Both HRM and Yarmouth helped Bridgewater as we launched our transit service,” says Mitchell.
“Yarmouth is smaller than Bridgewater, HRM a little bit larger” laughs Mitchell. “But both were helpful in launching our transit pilot.”
The discussions are informal but Mitchell says they’re invaluable.
The group has been meeting after Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (UNSM) meetings for the past few years.
This time they chose to have a stand alone session in Bridgewater.
Waye Mason, deputy mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality, says HRM wasn’t as engaged with surrounding areas as much after amalgamation but now they’re back at the table working with townships from across Nova Scotia.
Although he says Halifax didn’t expect to win their recent bid for Amazon headquarters, Mason says the exercise was good practice and gave them a chance to highlight not just the HRM but surrounding communities as well.
“A lot of your residents here in Bridgewater and Mahone Bay and Lunenburg, they’re working in Halifax, in Chester, they’re working in Halifax,” says Mason. “And we support that and that was a part of our sales pitch, ‘hey you can live in Chester, in Bridgewater, you can buy houses here for a lot less than in Toronto.’”
Mason says strong regional centres with solid urban cores can have a positive affect on rural areas too.
Mitchell agrees.
“That helps not just the urbans but the rurals, the towns, the villages, every level is impacted to its benefit with a strong regional urban centre,” says Mitchell.
And Mason says the challneges they all face are similar, despite the scale.
“All of us have the same problems and face the same challenges and have the same kind of solutions that are available,” says Mason. “Sure the scale in downtown Halifax is larger but when you’re talking about trying to create a downtown that is attractive to tourists and business and investment … it’s all the same kind of argument.”
The two day informal session saw everything from transit to the legalization of recreational cannabis discussed – Justice Minister Mark Furey stopped by to speak on that file.
Leaders of the around a dozen communites who participated will meet again, though neither Mason nor Mitchell were sure if it would be for a standalone session again or if they’d once again meet after UNSM meetings.
