towns task force report
DESCRIPTION
Presentation to UNSM spring workshop, May 11, 2012TRANSCRIPT
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
A Path to Municipal
Viability
Towns Task Force
Presentation to UNSM
Spring Workshop
May 11, 2012
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Regional Meetings – What we Heard • Presentation well received – no outright
objection to ideas put forward
• General comments included:
– a lot of good ideas/long overdue
– status quo cannot continue/need to find mutual solutions
– recognize towns and rurals impact each other - encouraged
to hear not just a towns caucus issue
– UNSM must lead by example, can't rely on Province to do
it on their own
– look at simple solutions to sell to the public - don't
complicate issues
– Name of Task Force should change to reflect all units
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Purpose
• To make recommendations that will
address the many challenges facing Nova
Scotia towns
• All recommendations to be made in
context of the fiscal challenges facing the
Province and municipalities
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Members
• Mayor David Corkum (Town of Kentville, Chair)
• Deputy Warden Jimmy MacAlpine (UNSM President)
• Warden Keith Hunter (County of Cumberland)
• Councillor Sandra Statton (District of Lunenburg)
• Councillor Russell Walker (Halifax Regional Municipality)
• Mayor Billy Joe MacLean (UNSM Past President)
• CAO Louis Coutinho (Town of Windsor and AMA
representative)
• Mayor Darian Huskilson (Town of Lockport)
• Mayor Barrie MacMillan (Town of New Glasgow)
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Overall Principle
• Best value and fairness for tax payers
regardless of structure
• Note: Task Force does not support
annexation as an appropriate solution to
the challenges facing towns
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Principle Achieved through Six
Themes:
1. Municipalities must be viable in the long term
2. Governance changes may be necessary
3. Resolving service issues should be less
confrontational, resulting in more efficient
municipalities
4. Fair tax burden to pay for regional services
5. More use of regional service delivery models
6. Incentives to increase economic growth in
downtowns
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
1. Municipalities must be viable in
the long term
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Viability
RECOMMENDATION
• Increase transparency of the fiscal situation facing municipalities, promote public debate based on solid analysis – Critical indicators published on municipal state, available
for public review and comment
– Introduce a process to require additional studies if issues identified through critical indicators such as high property taxes
– Studies would require public engagement to discuss the issues
– Process to be entrenched in MGA
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Comments on Viability
• Will Province cost-share on more detailed
studies?
– Task Force to discuss with Province
• Provide clear definition of viability
– Task Force to develop definition
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Governance
RECOMMENDATION
• Introduce new mechanisms to facilitate
governance changes while avoiding high costs
and confrontational issues associated with
UARB:
(1) Dissolution and amalgamation
(2) When parties agree
(3) When parties don't agree
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Amalgamation and Dissolution
• Introduce new provisions in MGA for more
effective voluntary dissolution and amalgamation
processes
– New Provincial programs to assist with transitional
costs, boundary reviews, etc.
– Develop best practice guides/lessons learned
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
When Parties Agree
• When parties agree to amalgamate or dissolve,
appoint commissioner to review request and
facilitate agreement
– Commissioner, municipalities, and SNSMR draft
an agreement; public engagement part of the
process
– Agreement ratified by the Province
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
When Parties do not Agree
• When parties do not agree to governance
changes, one party may request to appoint a
commissioner to facilitate an agreement that
better serves citizens
– Both parties are at the table, information is shared,
aim to reach a solution that meets needs of both
– Public engagement part of the process
– Municipality requesting Commissioner would fund
costs associated with this process
– UARB would be last resort if no agreement reached
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Comments on Governance
• Create mechanisms that make it easier for a
town to revert to village status or another type of
governance structure.
– Task Force will explore
• Failed municipalities should become wards of
the Province and not the responsibility of the
neighbouring unit.
– Task Force did not agree
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
3. Resolving service issues should
be less confrontational, resulting
in more efficient and effective
municipalities
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Resolving Service Issues: Dispute
Resolution
• Establish municipal arbitrator program to resolve
existing service issues between units
– Train former Councillors/Administrators
– Have professional arbitrators available if necessary
– All or one municipal unit may request service
– Binding – only for existing significant services
– Arbitration clause mandated for new provincially funded
projects, recommended for all other joint projects
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Significant Services Definition
Proposed criteria to determine a significant service
• Large number of non-host municipal users
(30%)
• Service cost at least 10% of host municipal
budget
• No review of cost sharing formula in 3 years
• Arbitrator makes decision based on above
criteria
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Comments on Dispute Resolution • Significant Service: Concern about arbitrator for
significant services? What is significant?
• No service is over 10% of the budget as per
significant definition
• Binding: A very powerful tool. Concern about
when it would be used.
• Be careful arbitrator does not become too
expensive
• Task Force supports the necessity of some form
of binding arbitration. Will further explore
“significant”
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
4. Fair tax burden to pay for
regional services
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Fairness
• Task Force strongly believes in the overriding principle: best value and fairness for tax payers regardless of structure
• This means we shouldn’t waste money on inefficient services, and that we take responsibility for paying for services we receive
• Task Force looked at two cases - one for new services and one for existing services
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Fair Tax Burden for New Services
• Discussion between municipalities should start early, so that needs of both are recognized
• Joint services may require revenue sharing
• One party may not be forced into taking part, however if a significant number of residents from non-host unit use the service, host unit may require arbitration at a later date
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Fair Tax Burden for Existing Services
• Pertains to services provided by towns, rural and
regional municipalities equally
• Identify who benefits from the service through
study, study templates provided by
Province/UNSM
• Those who benefit from the service should pay
– ie: all pay, users pay, or those within a certain
distance of the service would pay, higher user fees
– Other mechanisms?
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Comments on Fair Tax Burden
• Determining Benefits: There are economic
advantages/spinoffs to the municipal unit hosting
large facility such as an arena or community
centre. These need to be taken into account.
• User Fees:
– Be careful about overuse of user fees: some services
benefit all and all should contribute, other services
offer clearly defined benefits to individuals and are
more suited to user fees
• Task Force will review
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
5. More use of regional service
delivery models
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Regional Service Delivery Models
• Provide incentives to share services, reach economies of scale, follow best practices to reduce costs to citizens. Examples include:
– Greater provincial funding for projects involving multiple units
– Province require study of shared services as part of application for funding
– Align provincial programs to reward cooperation
– Work with MFC to explore options for regional projects
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Regional Service Delivery Models continued
– When an existing development requires infrastructure from an adjacent municipality, allow the costs to be recovered through an area rate levied by the adjacent municipality on the development. Would require agreement by both Councils.
– For new developments, allow a mechanism where the developer pays for costs in adjacent municipality. i.e. infrastructure charges
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Regional Planning Models
• Difficult to achieve without legislation, many
competing interests
• Recommend at a minimum municipalities
developing or reviewing MPS must consult with
adjacent municipalities on land just outside
municipal boundary
• In future, look at provincial financial incentives
and/or legislation to encourage more holistic
regional planning models
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Comments on Regional Service
Delivery
• Will Province help fund studies/projects that
encourage/facilitate regional service delivery?
– Answer: Task Force to discuss with
Province
• There are a number of good examples of
regional cooperation in Nova Scotia and
elsewhere – need to learn from these
– Task Force will document good examples
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
6. Incentives to increase economic
growth in downtowns
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Business Attraction/Retention Strategies
• Review authority of BIDC’s to determine if new
tools would be helpful
• Enable towns to offer a lower commercial tax
rate in the downtown core defined by geographic
boundaries
• Provide a tax freeze as an incentive to renovate
older commercial buildings in the downtown core
(abatement and/or rebate)
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Business Attraction/Retention Strategies
• Review building codes to encourage commercial
and residential redevelopment in downtown core
• Ability to waive building permit fees and
development fees in the downtown area
• Provide financial tools to encourage brownfield
redevelopment – tax reduction over period of
time
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Business Attraction/Retention Strategies
• Reinstate Mainstreet Program
• Allow municipal facade programs
• Allow creation of joint development zones
between two municipalities with one residential
and one commercial tax rate
• Allow tax increment financing programs
• Other ideas?
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Commercial/Residential Tax Gap
• Task Force does not recommend
mandatory limits on commercial-residential
property tax gap
• However, municipalities need to recognize
this as a growing problem and should
consider lowering commercial tax gap to
promote healthy commercial sector.
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Comments on Incentives for
Economic Growth in Downtowns
• Building Codes
– Look at incentives for development on 2nd/3rd story
– Building code safety standards still must be met
• Other
– Look at role of Waterfront Development Corporations in
facilitating downtown revitalization
– Municipality constructs or renovates a building and leases
it back to private sector
• Task Force agrees safety is first concern. Task Force will
consider other suggestions
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Outstanding Issues • The Terms of Reference identified a number of
issues that may require further consideration
– Towns lack of room to growth/ development on periphery
of towns: Task Force recommends Economic zones /
revenue sharing / less confrontation. Is this enough?
– Urban Core road issues: Further discussion required with
Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal
– Policing Costs: Discussions underway with Province on
joint committee to explore
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Longer Term Strategy
• Task Force recognizes proposed
recommendations will not solve all problems. In
future, consideration must be given to:
– Reviewing roles and responsibilities between
provincial and municipal governments
– Undertaking a commission on municipal
governance/restructuring including better defined
boundaries (similar to Graham Commission)
The Collective Voice for Nova Scotia Municipalities.
Next Steps
• Incorporate feedback from regional meetings
and Spring Workshop
• Task Force will prepare report to be distributed
to all mayors, wardens, councillors and CAO’s
for further feedback
• UNSM Board to review and approve final report
from Task Force based on feedback received
from municipal units
• Final recommendations presented at Fall
Conference
• Next steps to be identified