Province claims new bill will save municipalities up to $50M, but Cape Breton mayor skeptical

The Nova Scotia government has introduced a bill it claims could save the 48 municipalities outside Halifax a total of $40 million to $50 million in annual contributions to the province.

The money now goes to cover jails costs and operating losses for public housing in their communities.

Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr says the province will also take over ownership of schools declared surplus, but only if those schools were built before 1981.

According to the minister, there are substantial savings for municipalities that have older schools they don't want to be saddled with.

"In some cases there's been fairly significant costs associated with obsolete schools," said Lohr. "They're old buildings that have asbestos, or whatever, but there's fairly significant costs to remediate the site, to change the site.

"In some cases the obsolete schools have been a burden to municipalities."

Old schools a problem years ago, says mayor

The changes are part of a deal between the province and the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities which represents municipal governments across the province.

The changes proposed in this bill do not affect the Halifax Regional Municipality which is involved with its own  direct negotiations with the province.

But what's being proposed does not impress the mayor of the largest municipality covered by this deal.

Amanda McDougall, mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, says what the province is offering aren't really savings at all.

"Saying that the municipality will now save [millions], that's wholly untrue," McDougall told CBC News in a phone interview Tuesday. "This is just a flow through for collection."

McDougall says if municipalities no longer have to pay the province for jails and public housing, they will stop collecting taxes to cover off the bill.

As for the province taking over older schools, McDougall said it would have been a help had it come much sooner.

"For CBRM that would have been great about 20 years ago because we've already taken ownership of all those schools so that means nothing to the CBRM.

The municipality wanted its own agreement with the province, similar to the side deal for HRM, but the province refused.

In a letter to Lohr last month, the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities supported CBRM's request to be dealt with separately.

"The [federation's] board is also deeply concerned with CBRM's indication that their future financial sustainability is untenable," wrote Port Hawkesbury Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton. "The board supports CBRM's request for a separate service exchange agreement to determine their best path forward."

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