Municipal Government Act update clears path for big changes

The Municipal Government Act, all 150 pages of it, passed in P.E.I. Legislature on Thursday night with a standing vote of 14-6.

The legislation will bring changes to the 73 municipalities across the Island, potentially resulting in many amalgamatingor banding together to share resources.

There will be minimum sizes for new towns and cities, and required services for municipalities: for example, community and emergency planning, andhours of operation for an office.

Municipalities federation pleased with changes, but sees challenges

Summerside Coun. Bruce MacDougall,president of theFederation of P.E.I. Municipalities, said the federation previously wanted to delaythe legislation until the spring setting, but has since changed their mind.

"There's been a lot of work done, a real good effort, and we achieved a lot more in a short time than we ever expected to, so we did ask the premier to move it through," said MacDougall.

"We have the oldest act in the country, and it's probably the worst act. At the end of the day we hope that we're going to have one of the best acts in all of Canada."

MacDougall said municipalities have wanted something like this for a long time.

"If you look at Nova Scotia, I think there's like50 municipalities.P.E.I., we have 73, and look at the difference of the size."

"Status quo is not acceptable, we need to be bigger and stronger."

'Building strong communities'

MacDougall appreciates there will be challenges with these changes. He said it's important the parties involved work together.

"There's going to be a lot of information that has to be passed on to all the municipalities, and as a federation we'll be working with each municipality to bring everyone up to date on the changes and how it's affecting each municipality," he said.

They don't want their tax rates to go high and I understand that.- Bruce MacDougall

"The province and the federation and municipalities have to work together to get the message out there. To show the benefits and all that stuff that goes with building strong communities."

MacDougall said it's not an easy process, but there are benefits.

"I think in the outlying area,they don't want their tax rates to go high and I understand that," he said.

"It will probably have to move some, but if you're in the middle of... Summerside for instance, you're downtown and you're paying $1.72 or $1.74 for a tax rate and you have street lights and you have all the amenities, that's one thing. But if you're living outside the city, you have a ditch, you don't have a street light, you don't have a sidewalk, you have your own system, there's no way you should pay that $1.72 or $1.74. There's got to be a graduated rate."

MacDougall said there are municipalities on the Island talking about coming together, so there is interest.