Municipal Law Amendment 2001 Act Introduced

SERVICE N.S./MUNICIPAL RELATIONS--Municipal Law Amendment 2001 Act Introduced

Legislation to amend the Municipal Grants Act, Municipal Government Act and Public Utilities Act and to repeal the Shopping Centre Development Act was introduced in the legislature today by Angus MacIsaac, Minister of Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Relations. The amendments are contained in a single bill, the Municipal Law Amendment 2001 Act.

The amendment to the Municipal Grants Act would reduce uniform assessment of a municipality by the value of property tax concessions provided to registered charities. Currently, the assessed value of a property owned by a registered charity is included in a municipality's uniform assessment even if the owner is exempt from paying property tax.

Uniform assessment values are part of the data used to calculate how much municipalities receive in provincial grants and how much they contribute to other programs. The lower a municipality's uniform assessment, the more it may receive in grants and the less it may contribute to programs. As a result, some municipalities had been reluctant to exempt some charities from property tax as this would not only result in less property tax revenue, but possibly cost them more in grants or contributions or both.

"Hopefully, this change will encourage municipalities to provide property tax exemptions to registered charities," Mr. MacIsaac said. "It would help ensure that municipalities are not inadvertently penalized for providing an exemption to a deserving organization." The Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities passed a resolution at its 2001 annual meeting supporting this amendment.

The bill proposes 28 amendments to the Municipal Government Act. Most of the 28 are of a housekeeping nature or are in response to requests from municipal units and villages.

"The Municipal Government Act is intended to be responsive to the legislative needs of municipalities," sais the minister. "Many of these amendments are at the request of municipalities or villages, and we are happy to accommodate them."

For example, one provision was requested by the Halifax Regional Municipality to help it deal with properties that contain hazardous excavations or fill. Another would enable municipalities to borrow money to develop recreation trails and to make loans to registered fire departments.

There are also housekeeping provisions, several of them following up on the transfer of housing services to the Department of Community Services. The Public Utilities Act amendment would raise the minimum dollar value of a capital expenditure by a public utility requiring Utility and Review Board approval from $5,000 to $25,000. This amount had not changed in more than 30 years.

The repeal of the Shopping Centre Development Act has the support of the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities. It was passed in 1979 to provide for public and municipal input concerning the location of shopping malls over 50,000 square feet.

"At the time, few municipalities had planning strategies so this act filled a void," Mr. MacIsaac said. "Today, retail patterns and municipal planning strategies have made the act redundant. In fact, since 1979, there have only been two applications for hearings under this act, and only three appeals of municipal council decisions."

The repeal is scheduled for January 1, 2003 to give municipalities time to prepare any planning amendments that may be required. This provision also has the support of the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities.