BILL NO. 28

1st Session, 57th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
47 Elizabeth II, 1998

Private Member's Bill

Forced Municipal Amalgamations Correction Act

John F. Hamm, M.D.
Pictou Centre

First Reading: October 15, 1998

Second Reading:

Third Reading:

WHEREAS this Legislature recognizes the inequitable and damaging results of the amalgamations forced upon the municipal units in the County of Cape Breton and the County of Halifax by the unilateral action of the Province;

AND WHEREAS some boundaries of the resulting regional municipalities are inappropriate because of the failure to take into account the different needs, wishes and resources of the inhabitants of urban and rural areas of those regional municipalities;

AND WHEREAS inadequately researched and overly optimistic estimates of the costs of the forced amalgamations were used, resulting in severe deficits;

AND WHEREAS there is widespread discontent and disapproval in the amalgamated areas;

AND WHEREAS neither the Acts incorporating these regional municipalities nor any other Act provides any procedure to allow an area of a regional municipality to cease to be part of that regional municipality;

THEREFORE Be it enacted by the Governor and Assembly as follows:

1 This Act may be cited as the Forced Municipal Amalgamations Correction Act.

2 The purpose of this Act is to

(a) permit action to be taken to minimize the adverse effects of the amalgamations of the municipal units in the County of Cape Breton and the County of Halifax; and

(b) provide a procedure for an area of a regional municipality to withdraw from that regional municipality by applying to the Utility and Review Board for withdrawal and the coincidental incorporation of such an area as a city, town or municipality of a county or a district or annexation to an adjoining municipal unit.

3 In this Act,

(a) "Board" means the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board;

(b) "regional municipality" means the Regional Municipality of Cape Breton and the Regional Municipality of Halifax.

4 This Act applies to the Regional Municipality of Cape Breton and the Regional Municipality of Halifax.

5 This Act binds Her Majesty in right of the Province.

6 (1) Notwithstanding any other enactment, whether enacted before or after the coming into force of this Act, not fewer than two hundred ratepayers in an area of a regional municipality may apply to the Board to be incorporated as a city, town or municipality of a county or district or to be annexed to another municipal unit adjoining the area.

(2) No application shall be made pursuant to this Act in respect of an area of a regional municipality within three years of the making of an application pursuant to this Act in respect of the same area or substantially the same area.

(3) Where more than one application is made pursuant to this Act in respect of the different areas of the same regional municipality, the Board may hear the applications jointly.

(4) The Municipal Boundaries and Representation Act applies mutatis mutandis to an application pursuant to this Act.

7 (1) In this Section, "participating municipalities" means a city, town or municipality of a county or district incorporated pursuant to this Act and the regional municipality remaining after the incorporation of the city, town or municipality of a county or district.

(2) Where the Board orders the incorporation of a city, town or municipality of a county or district, the Board may order the establishment, provision, continuation, maintenance or administration of municipal services by one or more of the participating municipalities to all or part of the area of the participating municipalities.

(3) An order made pursuant to this Section may be made in respect of any service provided by the regional municipality before the incorporation of a city, town or municipality of a county or district pursuant to this Act and, without restricting the generality of the foregoing, these services may include park and recreational services, fire protection, police protection, the removal of ice and snow from streets or sidewalks or both, the supplying of water, the supplying and use of sewers and sewage disposal and the collecting, removing and disposing of garbage.

(4) An order made pursuant to this Section may include

(a) a description of the services to be provided pursuant to the order;

(b) the area for which the services are to be provided;

(c) how and by whom the services are to be established, provided, continued, maintained or administered, with power to delegate these either to a district planning commission created under the Planning Act or to a committee consisting of representatives of each of the participating municipalities or to one or more of the participating municipalities;

(d) how the cost of the services, both capital and current, is to be provided, the proportions of the cost to be paid by each participating municipality or a method of determining these proportions, when the respective shares of the cost are to be paid and a rate of interest to be payable for default of prompt payment;

(e) the ownership of any capital assets to be created under the order;

(f) provisions for the disposition of a capital asset before or at the termination of the order;

(g) a provision for amending or terminating the order;

(h) such other terms and conditions relating thereto as the Board considers necessary or advisable.

(5) An order made pursuant to this Section is deemed to be an agreement for the purpose of Section 72 of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Act, Section 63 of the Halifax Regional Municipality Act, clause 74(h) of the Municipal Act or subsection 13(3) of the Towns Act.

(6) Notwithstanding any order made pursuant to this Section, any of the participating municipalities may

(a) terminate the application of the order; or

(b) with the agreement of all of the participating municipalities, terminate the application of any part of the order,

to that participating municipality at the end of any fiscal year upon at least six months written notice to the other participating municipalities before the commencement of that fiscal year, but no such notice may be given until at least two years after the order taking effect.

8 (1) Where the Board orders the incorporation of an area of a regional municipality as a city,

(a) within ninety days of the making of the order if the Assembly is then sitting or, if it is not then sitting, within ten days of it next sitting, the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs shall introduce legislation in the House of Assembly to implement the incorporation of the city; and

(b) the incorporation is subject to the enactment of the legislation.

(2) The Board may, in its order respecting the incorporation an area of a regional municipality as a city, provide that, if the Legislature fails to enact the legislation incorporating the city within such period as the Board determines, the area becomes a town.

9 Every enactment, whether enacted before or after the coming into force of this Act, shall be read, construed, interpreted and given effect as subject in all respects to this Act and, where there is a conflict between this Act and any other enactment, whether enacted before or after the coming into force of this Act, this Act prevails.

10 Subsection 20 (2) of Chapter 3 of the Acts of 1995, the Halifax Regional Municipality Act, is repealed.