ANTIGONISH COUNTY: The Warden for the Municipality of the County of Antigonish says that unless there is something that comes totally out of left field, they will end their fiscal year with a balanced budget.
“We may even have a little surplus, when all the dust settles,” Warden Owen McCarron told The Reporter following the municipality’s regular council meeting on March 8.
He suggested for council, the goal is when they set their budget, is to have it balanced for the end of the year, and while you may pick up a few wins along the way, you’re also going to take a few hits as well.
“But right now it’s looking very good to come in on budget or ahead of budget a little bit,” McCarron said, “We’re pretty pleased with that given the volatility of a lot of things this year, fuel being one of them.”
He suggested while they’re still dealing with some of the challenges from COVID-19, he thinks people are genuinely happy to see most of the restrictions lifted, which is good not only for the province, but also on their budget.
“From the budget side, we’ve always had a very strong collection here in the county and it’s remained solid through the past two years of COVID as well, so that’s great,” McCarron said. “We’ve continued to experience good growth within the municipality plus a lot of home sales have taken place over the past two years as well, so people are moving and transitioning to our community, which is nice to see as well.”
While people tend to look at the negatives associated with COVID-19, the warden highlighted a positive takeaway; people recognized they can work from remote areas and don’t need to be in downtown Toronto to make a living, He noted that rural high speed internet helps facilitate that.
“And I think over the last couple of years, our work with Develop Nova Scotia in trying to get more high speed throughout many areas of the county is starting to show dividends,” McCarron said. “There’s still more work to do and we’re waiting for the next rollout to happen, and the eastern end of the county is going to start to get picked up.”
The warden suggested those are pieces of information they use to look at their overall budget and look at the strength of the municipality, noting they’ve been fortunate to have solid assessment and assessment increases over time.
“I think the last census certainly has highlighted our population is growing, so that’s encouraging to see,” McCarron said. “In the grand scheme of things, we’re more of a rural municipality, but to see a positive growth is something that’s not seen all too much throughout the province so we’re in a pretty fortunate position on that front.”
As senior staff wrap up the current fiscal year, while at the same time begin to pull things together for the upcoming annual budget, McCarron explained there are a couple big ticket items, like education and protective services, the municipality isn’t completely sure about.
“Policing as an example, with the ratification of the new collective agreement for the RCMP, we know there is going to be a new pressure on that front,” McCarron said. “Waiting to hear those numbers, will certainly impact the timing of our budget but we’re hopeful we’ll have the budget out by the third week to the end of May.”
Through each phase of the pandemic, the warden explained staff took a very cautious and very respectful approach following public health protocosl, resulting in very low number of employees who were sick or missed work for a long period of time.
“So we’re pretty much back to normal, as of next week, when everything will be back to open on all fronts and the provincial regulations changing,” McCarron said. “We’re pretty pleased with how staff responded, we’re pleased with how our public adapted to the challenges during COVID as well, and how they were very patient; and how staff were excellent to work with the public to make sure any of their concerns were addressed.”
As for disruptions of services, McCarron suggested he didn’t receive a lot of calls of concerns from the public over the past two years on the service side of things.
“So I think we’ve done a good job collectively in between our council and staff ensuring there was a seamless transition for people,” McCarron said. “There were enough other challenges out there during COVID, us not putting road blocks in front of our community was important and I think we’ve done a good job on that front.”