Municipalities need money
HALIFAX — The provincial stay the blazes home directive seems to have drained municipal coffers.
A Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities report released Thursday concludes that the province's state of emergency has required so many Nova Scotians to stay at home that it's caused municipalities' normal non-tax revenue streams to almost entirely dry up.
The lost revenue report identifies a $66.5-million collective shortfall among the province's 49 municipalities in uncollected funds from regular revenue streams like transit, recreation, parking, development permits and other fees.
“We've done everything we can to tighten our belts because when you budget, you budget for this revenue and all of a sudden this revenue is gone, so how do you recoup that? You can't,” said Pam Mood, mayor of Yarmouth and president of the NSFM.
Mood said Halifax Regional Municipality, home to four of every nine Nova Scotians, accounts for the lion's share of the losses. In deliberations to readjust its 2020-21 operating budget, HRM projected a $44-million loss in revenue for the fiscal year.
“I will say this, it's all relative,” Mood said. “The larger the municipal unit, the more services it provides, and the larger the losses. But even a small loss in a small community is relative.”
The detailed NSFM report cited 76 per cent of losses being incurred among regional municipalities, 15 per cent in rural municipalities and nine per cent in towns.
The report identified a collective $23-million shortfall in transit revenue, $11.7 million in deed transfer taxes, $8.5 million in recreation revenue, $7.2 million in interest and $4.8 million in lost collection of penalties and fines.
Mood said Nova Scotia's municipalities scrambled to make cuts over the past several months by axing programs, laying off hundreds of staff and drawing down on reserves.