Utility & Review Board Hearings on dissolving
the Town of Hantsport spanned three days (Mar 23-25). On Tuesday evening 11 residents made oral
presentations to the Board, in one of the most impressive evenings I can
remember. One by one, over a period of
two hours, they spoke to their concerns, with heartfelt and well presented
positions. Every option was defended:
Stay Town; dissolveTown; want to be in West Hants; want to be in Kings;
Village, yes; Village, no. More than 60
people present – and the Board – listened carefully and respectfully. I think everyone there was very proud of our
community! [Note: all 11 presentations
will be put up on the UARBs website as soon as they are transcribed.]
Earlier in the day, a number of issues were
clarified, including the following:
The merging of Hantsport with Kings County,
and/or making Hantsport a Village in Kings County, is being seriously
considered by the Board (in spite of rumors to the contrary). The Board stated that explicitly, several
times.
Under questioning, the CAO of West Hants stated
that (1) the projected $1.66 tax rate for Hantsport is guaranteed for one
year only; (2) the Municipality of West Hants does have “area rates” (which is an additional tax, over and above
the “general Municipal rate,” which is levied on a particular area for services
specific to that particular area); and (3) the costs of services / projects
specific to Hantsport will likely be charged to Hantsport residents thru a
Hantsport area rate. (E.g., street
lights, sidewalk maintenance/plowing) The
costs of both local street repairs and storm sewer repairs in Hantsport would
be handled that way. [Note: Hantport's existing debt would likely also be
so handled, as is the case in Springhill (see Herald, April 1, p. A3].
Last Fall, a chart was distributed showing
projected future tax rates for Hantsport under 5 different options. The Board found that some of those numbers
present a “worst case” scenario, that is to say, what the taxes would be
under an option if everything goes wrong.
(For example, the Federal Government refuses to offer any help for any
of the repair work we need.) The Board
wants to see a second set of numbers for those options, which they called the “Sunny
Day” scenario, in which some things go right. (For example, the Federal Government DOES
offer help with those repairs.) This seeking
of additional information is called an “Undertaking”; in Hantsport's case, the
Board has ordered ten additional Undertakings, to be completed by Friday April
7. Final Briefs will be presented April
10; Rebuttals on April 17; sometime after that will come the Board's
decision.
The Board noted that the numbers given for the merger
with West Hants include the monies ($2.2 millions) offered by the Province to help
with infrastructure repairs, but the numbers given for the merger with Kings do
not. The Board directed that another set
of numbers for the Kings option be prepared, this time assuming that the
Province would offer Kings exactly the same amount of money that they have
offered West Hants. That will lower the
projected costs of the Kings options; by how much remains to be seen.
The Grant-Thornton study assumed a 5% growth rate
in revenues for West Hants, but only a 1% growth rate for Kings. Under questiioning, the latter slow-grow
rate was vigorously challenged by Levy Chase consultants, and also by the
Board.
The submission called “Hantsport Village,” which
argues that Hantsport as a “limited services” village is an affordable option,
was frequently discussed during the Hearings.
That Submission is available on the Utility and Review Board website
under Cases and Evidence, Case #M06209 [note both '0s' are zeros], Exhibits,
H-30 Public Submissions, #22.
Joe Foy, 16 William Street
Wow some pretty serious false information out there to sway us Hantsport residents into believing the tax rate would stay the same in West Hants for 5 years. Many bought it.
ReplyDeleteOn March 24th there was nothing much on the TV so I attended the Hantsport dissolution meeting held by the URAB at the Fire Station.
ReplyDeleteEleven speakers from the local community were lined up to speak & I was glad I went because one speaker in particular seemingly had the answers to all of the woes of the renamed “Haven of Hostility.”
This local resident informed the meeting that all the problems facing Hantsport were caused by the Governments in Halifax & Ottawa. He proceeded to further suggest that the world economic situation had led to the desperate situation that was leading Hantsport towards dissolution and all the Town has to do in future is to get more re-engaged with the rest of the worlds’ Global economy. There you go...simple.
Also, he had 3 bottles of drink on his table, Apple juice, a Black current drink & a Cranberry cocktail, none of which are made in Nova Scotia . His suggestion seemed to be saying that all Hantsport needed to do was plant Apple trees, plus cranberry & black current bushes, then start producing local similar drinks and when all that was completed all of its’ economic problems would disappear. I wonder why no one has ever thought of that before?
He began to elaborate further by saying that Hantsport residents needed to become more interested in sex to boost the local population but at that point the URAB Chairman regretfully stopped the presentation.
There you go ...problems solved...simple.....little wonder the attendees were all smiling accordingly.
I felt like clapping, but the chairman of the meeting had previously warned everyone that he wouldn’t allow it.
Anyone seen clapping would be exiled to a West Hants detention centre.
Perish that thought!
Regards,
David Old
Hants Border