But what about the small?

Larger municipalities probably have more reason to feel welcoming about the new Municipal Government Act than unincorporated areas and rural municipalities that have been functioning with Community Improvement Committees.

CICs currently provide some pretty basic services, like being the means through which fire dues are channeled to the nearest fire department. Many CICs don’t have sidewalks or even streetlights to worry about. Rural residents rarely demand those services.

Municipal taxes, therefore, are usually lower than what residents pay in towns and communities that maintain sidewalks and pay for police protection.

Smaller municipalities likely won’t have sidewalks, sewer utilities or even extended service police contracts once the new MGA is proclaimed, either. But they will be required to offer regular office hours and enhanced administrative services, even if residents don’t need the administrative functions.

There will be new levels of accountability and transparency with the new act, and that’s all good, but a minimum of 20 hours of office time a week seems a little excessive for some. That provision, alone, could cause the municipal tax rates for a small community to at least double.

There are, however, two distinct ways around that increase. The simplest would be to disband and pay for fire dues through provincial property taxes, just like residents now do in unincorporated communities.

The other approach would be to get bigger. Amalgamate with other CICs in the area and/or annex neighbouring unincorporated communities. The bigger the community becomes, the greater the chance there will be need for a full-time or half-time administrator and, spread out over more taxpayers, the change in the tax rate might be insignificant – or at least less.

And bigger is better, right?

It is unlikely that a council’s voice made up of ward representatives from all of the amalgamated communities would be that much louder than the voice of a council that speaks for the needs of one small community. This second option, getting bigger, is the most likely outcome.

The provincial government did not go through the process of drawing up a new Municipal Government Act to see an even greater chunk of this province become unincorporated. Quite the contrary. Close to 70 per cent of Prince Edward Island’s land mass is unincorporated while close to 70 per cent of the Island’s population lives in incorporated communities. Expect the push to have all of Prince Edward Island incorporated to grow but expect, also, a pushback. Incorporation of all of Prince Edward Island is of greater benefit to the residents of incorporated communities than it is to the residents in unincorporated communities, because it would mean more people paying for municipal services.

Even if larger communities did not gain more landmass, they would still benefit from having the entire province incorporated. Because there would be less reason for people to build just outside of town or city limits if they are going to be paying municipal taxes anyway.

So more people would move into Summerside, Stratford and Charlottetown and the rural voice, incorporated or otherwise, would be further weakened.