Money at heart of strained relations between Baddeck and Victoria County: village chair

Budget pressures are causing tension between the village commission in Baddeck, N.S., and Victoria County council, commission chair Jennifer MacDonald says.

Last year, the county cancelled all of its long-standing funding agreements with the village and MacDonald said since then, both sides have started trying to work out which level of government is responsible for things like sidewalk snow clearing and sewer and water services.

"Everybody wants to make their dollars stretch as far as possible and so, yeah, I think part of it is money and I think part of it is a shifting sense of responsibility and agreements had been in place for a long time and agreements need to be renegotiated because things change over time," MacDonald said Monday after the village commission's annual general meeting.

Neither county chief administrative officer Leanne MacEachen nor Warden Jackie Organ returned calls for comment this week.

On its website, Victoria County says it is willing to strike an agreement on shared services, but the village needs to come up with a five-year capital plan and supporting financial documents before it can agree on any more funding.

MacDonald said the village is willing to work with the county, but a comprehensive capital plan can't be developed before the fall, when an engineer's assessment is due on the village's aging sewer system.

The county says in addition to a traditional cost-sharing agreement, both sides need to consider:

• Property taxes related to village-owned water utility infrastructure.
• Tipping fees or contributions toward solid waste management.
• Responsibility for garbage collection within the village.
• Potential support from the municipality with tax collection, including cost recovery.

MacDonald said the village was sharing the cost of some services under long-standing agreements, but the newly elected commission has decided it does not want residents to pay extra for services they already pay for as county taxpayers.

Sidewalk snow clearing is a good example, MacDonald said.

The village has done that work for years with a financial contribution from the county.

But the village does not own the sidewalks, which MacDonald said are a municipal responsibility, according to the provincial Municipal Affairs Department.

She said the village indicated last winter it was going to stop providing the service, but the county asked that it be continued for one more year, so the village did that out of concern for the safety of residents.

Last year, the service cost the village about $35,000, with the county chipping in $8,000 of that, MacDonald said, adding that other communities get that service paid fully by the county.

"That'll have to be another discussion … because it certainly is a service that is provided by the municipality elsewhere and … why is it that the Village of Baddeck tax rate should subsidize that?"

Not personal

Garbage collection and sewer and water services are also provided to other communities, paid for out of county general funds, which Baddeck taxpayers also pay into, MacDonald said.

Money is at the heart of the tension between the village commission and the county council, she said.

"Although the relationship is strained, it's certainly not a reflection of relationships between commissioners and councillors being strained," she said.

"I think it's just a reflection of different levels of government and their responsibilities and the pressures that everyone feels. I think that's where the tension is, not personally."

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