It’s being called by provincial government officials an historic investment in municipalities.
The Nova Scotia government has signed a new service exchange agreement with the province’s 49 municipalities.
The agreement, also known as a memorandum of understanding takes effect on Monday with an annual investment in municipalities of $82 million from the Province. That’s an increase of $52 million from the $30 million in funding through the annual Municipal Financial Capacity Grant.
New Glasgow Town Hall (Town of New Glasgow web site)
Among the changes is removing the requirement under the Corrections Act for municipalities to make an annual contribution to corrections. The new agreement removes the requirement of municipalities to pay a portion of the net operating losses for public housing.
It also changes the Education Act so that ownership of schools built before 1981 would transfer back to the province when they are deemed obsolete. Municipalities would be given the first right to offer to buy close school buildings at a negotiated price.