The Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and Association of Municipal Administrators have reacted to a funding announcement from the provincial government.
Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood, who chairs the NSFM, says the province is making 380 million dollars available to municipalities.
“It’s through the Municipal Loan Program; it’s open to us so we have that funding that we can tap in to, basically for ‘bridge’ funding. In the meantime, it gives a little bit of breathing space for the businesses and those residents that are having a very difficult time because of the circumstances.”
She says the money is to help cover revenues lost from taxes and services that charge fees.
“Taxes is one thing, and we know that that is where we are getting a large percent of our revenues, but the other pieces of revenue are things like transit, you know, lost funds because of transit and parking money that we used to get and the things like that. It’s just so difficult to keep your nose above ground.”
Mood says municipalities in the province are legally barred from running a deficit by the Municipal Government Act.
“Within that, we have to stay within the parameters, so we can’t run a deficit. If we could, we could say to our businesses that are in a little bit of trouble and our residents that are having difficulty, ‘don’t worry, we can take care of this and then catch up later’ but we just, legally, can not do that.”
The loan program has a one point one percent interest rate and is available to any municipality in the province that needs the help.
