2021-12-01

REGION OF QUEENS MUNICIPALITY BRIEFS

by KEVIN MCBAIN

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

PLANS FOR ANOTHER PLANNER

The Region of Queens Municipality (RQM) is looking for a planner to help with the "overwhelming" demand.

A job description was passed at the RQM council meeting Nov. 23.

"We basically have more building permits, development permits and subdivisions being built. We also have a new land-use bylaw that is coming down," said RQM Mayor Darlene Norman in an interview with LighthouseNOW. "Basically we are overwhelmed with new development and another person is needed."

The municipality currently has one planner on staff to handle requests. According to Norman, after two quarters the number of requests was about 90 per cent of what was expected for the entire year.

"We need to serve the people in a timely fashion," said Norman.

CHANGING RQM TO REGIONAL STATUS

The Region of Queens Municipality is joining forces with other municipalities in a regional caucus with the hope it will benefit from being with "like-minded fellow units."

The change will reflect how the municipality interacts within the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities (NSFM), which was established more than 100 years ago as the advocacy body for local governments in the province.

The years have seen numerous changes take place within the NSFM, including one about a decade ago that moved operations away from regional meetings of municipalities, which were based on geographical location, to regional caucus meetings based on the governance structures of towns, rural municipalities and regional municipalities.

The change saw the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) form a regional caucus.

While RQM was eligible to join this as well, it chose not to do so. "Council of the day felt they would be lost with those two large units," explained RQM Mayor Darlene Norman.

Since then, smaller municipalities have begun amalgamating, including the Town of Windsor and the Municipality of West Hants. The Town of Antigonish and the Municipality of Antigonish are thinking of consolidating as is the Town of Yarmouth, which has been discussing joining forces with the Municipality of Yarmouth.

According to Norman, there is an argument to be made for the region to join forces with HRM and CBRM.

"By changing now to the regional caucus it will give us more of a voice and will put us in with more like-minded municipal units that are made up of former rurals, plus a town," said Norman. "The issues we have are more in keeping with the issues that other regional governments would have."

She noted, for example, that rural municipalities normally do not own roads, nor do they own entities like water treatment plants or sewer lagoons. But they all may have similar issues in respect of these that may need addressing.

"It just makes sense to be with our like-minded fellow units," emphasized Norman.

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