BY JENNIFER HOEGG
Kings County Advertiser
The Kings Partnership Steering Committee met just twice in 2009 and Wolfville Mayor Bob Stead calls the intermunicipal group “dead in the water.”
KPSC chairman Bill Boyd disagrees. The Kentville deputy mayor has hope the group can get back on track. “I don’t think it’s completely dead. It’s certainly on the back burner.”
Consisting of mayors, wardens, two councillors and chief administrative officers from Kings County, Hantsport, Wolfville, Kentville and Berwick; the regional group used to meet at least quarterly, with one larger annual workshop.
According to Boyd, when the group formed in 2004 (he was Kentville’s CAO at the time), it was admired throughout the province for its approach to regional cooperation. “It was a great working relationship. We got along, we had some fun with it.”
When the education issue came up in 2007, it put a chill on cooperation. After the 2008 municipal elections, KPSC “tried to get things going” by meeting once in the spring of 2009 and again in the fall, but efforts stalled. “The mood of that meeting… well, there was no will to move ahead.”
Relationship breakdown
Kings County launched a court case in late 2009 to change the 27-year-old education funding agreement with the towns. Each municipality contributes on a per-student basis. If changed to a funding formula based on uniform assessment, the county and Berwick would save mone; Hantsport, Kentville and Wolfville would pay more. “There is no doubt that the education issue has put a severe strain on the ongoing relationships between towns and the county. I personally feel its unfortunate, because we’re dealing with an issue that should be a provincial issue.”
“There is no doubt that the education issue has put a severe strain on the ongoing relationships between towns and the county. I personally feel its unfortunate, because we’re dealing with an issue that should be a provincial issue.” - Bill Boyd
Boyd says the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities has brought the issue of education funding up with the province, but no changes are on the immediate horizon. “So here we are embedded in a controversial issue - education - and it’s holding up relations and important discussions to deal with other cooperative efforts like recreation, fire, solid waste and transit.”
Smaller conflicts, like the Kings County idea to move its offices – and those of Justice and Service Nova Scotia - out of Kentville are not as damaging, Boyd says.
Still talking
Not all cooperation is on life-support, Boyd points out. Towns and the county are working on fire, sewer and recreation services, as well as with Valley Waste, Kings Transit and the Kings Regional Development Authority. Progress has been made on recommendations from a 2007 fire services report, for instance. “What we’re not doing is coming together and hearing all the information at the same time and discussing bigger picture items as a group.”
Until the education case is settled, Boyd says there will be ill feelings. “It’s going to take awhile to get the confidence among the politicians to sit down and discuss other issues,” he says. “There has to be the will of the politicians to get together and move forward. In my opinion, the will is not there now. “I think it can be salvaged and I think it will be, but we have to get by this education issue first. We will be back.”
For residents interested in encouraging regional cooperation, Boyd suggests they speak with their councils. When KPSC meetings do occur, they are open to the public, Boyd says, but are not advertised.
