Two Nova Scotia towns wanted their local governments to get smaller in order to save money, and the province has made it official.
The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board granted Bridgetown’s and Annapolis Royal’s applications to reduce their council sizes in two written notices.
Bridgetown asked that the number of councillors be reduced from six to four, while Annapolis Royal sought to drop from five to four.
In each case, the review board noted that no one requested
to speak during hearings held
earlier this month.
Last year, Annapolis Royal Mayor Phil Roberts said the town’s tax revenues dropped by 28 per cent when the Annapolis tidal power plant was reassessed in 2008. The town appealed that decision.
Bridgetown’s council, made up of a provincially appointed mayor and two councillors who were temporarily running the town, supported downsizing.
Mayor Bob Fowler, who was appointed last June after the elected mayor and councillors resigned over the town’s growing financial problems, told The Chronicle Herald that $8,000 would be saved by dropping the number of councillors to four.
The decisions will be in effect for municipal elections in October.
Roberts, who won’t be reoffering for mayor, said Annapolis Royal was trying to set an example by decreasing the size of council.
But the amount saved isn’t that much, Roberts said Tuesday, as the town will keep $4,000 through the reduction.
"I also don’t think we can go any smaller because we’ve discussed it at length. If one councillor is away and someone happens to be sick, then we wouldn’t have a quorum."
Roberts, who was mayor for three years starting in 1997 and returned to the post in 2008, said the smaller council "will work fine."
Many small towns in Nova Scotia have been struggling financially and are facing the possibility of amalgamation with larger centres nearby. A Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities task force is looking into the future of 31 towns in the province.
