The Region of Queens approved its 2024/25 budgets on Monday. (Rick Conrad)

Region of Queens council approved a balanced budget on Monday with no tax rate increases and almost $30 million in spending.

At a special meeting, councillors also approved a $21.5-million capital budget, which includes the start of big projects like the water and sewer extension to the Mount Pleasant area and the new outdoor community pool at Queens Place Emera Centre.

Spending is up about $4 million from last year, to $29,848,303. The region’s water utility reported a $442,122 deficit.

Mayor Darlene Norman said in an interview that it was important to councillors not to increase the tax rate.

“We live in a great county and the budget reflects the fact that we are moving ahead,” she said.

“Many things in the budget remain the same. We’ve increased funding for fire departments for their truck purchases. The cost of those trucks is astronomical and we know how as volunteers how hard they work.

“It’s a good budget, it recognizes some requests from all parts of our county.”

Council committed an extra $126,772 in 2024/25 to help the county’s five fire departments with the rising costs of replacing fire trucks.

It also raised the household income threshold for the low-income tax exemption by $5,000. Property owners with a total income of $35,000 or less can qualify for up to $400 off their tax bill. The tiered structure gives the highest break for the lowest income.

“We understand that people financially struggle,” Norman said, “which is why … we increased the amount of money that people can make in order to claim a reduction on their taxes, … which is very generous, I believe, for a municipality of our size.”

The region reported a $644,000 surplus from last year, largely from rising property assessments, higher deed transfer tax revenue and unintended savings from unfilled staff positions. 

The region’s capital plan is packed.

CAO Cody Joudry said in an interview that it addresses a lot of concerns around the municipality.

“In terms of capital budget, it’s expansion of water, wastewater, there’s a lot of safety improvements and upgrades and a lot of investment in infrastructure and community assets, so I think that’s pretty significant.”

A little more than $7.8 million of the $21.5-million capital budget for 24/25 is provincial funding. Almost $2.5 million is from federal sources. About $3.8 million is from long-term borrowing, while $3.53 million is from a combination of municipal reserves and municipal surplus.

In addition to the new pool and the water and sewer extension, some other capital projects include:

• more work at Beach Meadows Beach to expand the parking lot, install sheltered picnic areas and improve environmental protections;
• much-needed repairs and upgrades at the Old Burial Ground in Liverpool;
• continued work on the Liverpool Business Development Centre to install a new heating, ventilation and cooling system;
• renovations to make the business development centre, otherwise known as the call centre space, ready for the temporary home of the Thomas H. Raddall Library;
• the early design work to install accessible washrooms at the inclusive play park and splash pad near Queens Place.

“There are things on there that are very important,” Norman said. “Of course, they will not all get done (this year), but by putting them on here, it shows that these are priorities and start them, do the best that you can do with them.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Kim Masland, Queens MLA and Nova Scotia’s public works minister, announces $10.7 million in provincial funding for a $21.5-million water and sewer expansion that gives the green light to two new housing developments in the Liverpool area. (Rick Conrad)

The Nova Scotia government and the Region of Queens are teaming up on a $21.5-million project to extend and improve water and sewer services in the Liverpool area.

Queens MLA Kim Masland on Monday announced $10.7 million in provincial funding to expand water and wastewater service to the Mount Pleasant area. The region will pitch in $10.8 million. 

The project means that two new private housing developments will go ahead on more than 60 acres of land. About 325 new housing units will be built for up to 1,200 people. It will be a mix of sold and rented space. About a third of those units could be affordable housing.

Masland, who is also Nova Scotia’s public works minister, made the announcement at the region’s municipal offices in Liverpool on behalf of John Lohr, the minister of municipal affairs and housing. 

“We need this funding, we know our community’s growing, we certainly need affordable and more housing stock within our community,” she said in an interview after the announcement.

“We’re attracting people to our community every day, there are med professionals that want to come here. This is a great project. This will allow us to build more houses.”

Masland said a municipal housing needs assessment found that Queens County needs 555 more housing units by the end of 2027. She said it’s difficult to recruit health care staff to move to the area if there’s nowhere to live.

“We need people building faster. We need homes up, we need places for people to live. We are in a housing crisis in the province and we’re going to do whatever we can to make sure we can help.”

The funding will also improve existing water and sewer services to more than 1,200 homes and businesses in the area, and help improve the amount of water available for firefighting efforts.

Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman emphasized that the funding will do more than help developers build new homes.

She said the current infrastructure is at or over capacity. The project will improve service for residents in Liverpool, Brooklyn and Milton.

“There are some really crucial repairs that need to be made to our system, so it can expand in all directions. This is not case-specific for specific people.”

The provincial portion of the funding comes from the $102-million Municipal Capital Growth Program. The region applied in December for the funding.

Norman said the region’s finance staff are working now to figure out how the municipal portion will be funded. The region is currently working on its 2024/25 budget.

Adam Grant, the region’s director of engineering and public works, said Monday he hopes the work will be finished in 24 to 36 months.

“So work is already underway. Following the feasibility study, we’ve migrated into some design work preliminary and that’s underway right now, looking at having designs rolled out in the fall and construction starting in the next 12 months ideally.”

The developers behind the two housing projects said Monday they were excited by the news. They’ve lobbied the municipality for the past few years to extend water and sewer services to those areas.

Both projects are near downtown Liverpool.

Larry Cochrane plans an 87-unit development on the old Dauphinee Farm property near Queens General Hospital, which would include a 24-unit apartment building.

He said he will soon begin the design phase of the project.

“I wish it was faster of course, but we’ll take that because there’s lots of work I need to do to get ready to start a project like this.”

Graham van der Pas is a partner with Rumclo Developments. They plan a three-stage development on about 30 acres of land farther up the road from Cochrane’s project.

“We’re very, very excited. We’ve been lobbying for this for the past two years. So it’s amazing.”

The Rumclo development will feature The Point, which will have 124, two-bedroom homes for sale, The Curve, with 22 three-bedroom townhouses, and Birchwood Gardens, 82 affordable rental apartments. Van der Pas said the affordable rentals will be 80 per cent of the median market rate. A one-bedroom would be about $800 a month, a two-bedroom $1,000 and a three-bedroom would rent for $1,200.

A section of The Curve will also be reserved for staff from Queens General Hospital to rent.

“I think a community like this needs it,” van der Pas said. 

“I think what our developments will bring to the town is … a significant amount of property taxes. The revenue will go up there, the economic revenue of people potentially starting businesses, new patrons for the businesses that are already existing. It’s significant.”

Ashley Christian, president of the South Queens Chamber of Commerce, said she’s happy that such a big investment is being made in Queens.

“We have been advocating through the chamber of commerce for more housing for a couple of years. So we’re so excited to see this huge investment, especially made by the municipality, really impressed by that.”

Christian said she’s especially happy that half the funding is coming from the province. She said she hopes that means the project won’t be a big burden on municipal taxpayers.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Region of Queens administration building. Photo Ed Halverson

Region of Queens council will once again delay a decision on the location of a new library.

Municipal staff had recommended building at the Liverpool business development centre but after a flood of e-mail correspondence and public comments at the last meeting councillors decided to discuss the matter further. They have requested staff look into the feasibility of temporarily relocating the library at the business centre until a new permanent home can be found.

In the recommendations portion of the meeting council determined three properties were considered dangerous and unsightly and directed staff to take action.

Councillors also approved a staff request to apply for over $10 million from the provincial municipal capital growth program. The program supports municipalities’ efforts to address infrastructure needs.

Region of Queens would like to use the funding to support the Mount Pleasant service extension project which has three distinct components: transmission main upgrades, water lift station upgrades, and extending services to the growth area around Mount Pleasant. The current estimated costs of the project are in the neighborhood of $21.5 million.

Council then approved spending $750 as their contribution to co-host the New Year’s Day levee alongside Mersey branch 38 of the Royal Canadian Legion.

Council then moved into discussions, the first two items involved road names, the first being Lingley Lane and the second Audrelyn Lane. No other streets in the region currently have those names so they will be assigned to those streets at an upcoming meeting.

A discussion whether to support Mill Village fire department’s request to purchase a new truck for $620,000 will come back to council once the chiefs of the Regions’ five fire departments have an opportunity to discuss long term planning for replacement of their engines. The municipality contributes 25 percent of the cost to the fire service whenever a new truck is purchased.

Next municipal staff asked council to clarify the intent of the travel expense policy. Staff are looking to clarify the language and will bring the policy back for Council’s consideration at a future meeting.

The last item on the agenda was a request from the Kiwanis Club of Liverpool to take over operation of the concession stand at Queens Place.

Under the proposal, the club will be responsible for ensuring compliance with food safety certificates and insurance as well as obtaining a food operating permit, while operations will be handled by volunteers from the Queens County Blades and Queens County minor hockey association. Councillors were supportive of the idea as it would provide an opportunity for all three local organizations to raise money.

Regional staff will work out details with the Kiwanis organization and bring the item back before council at a future meeting.

Council only meets one time in December due to the holidays. The next council meeting will be January 9^th at 9:00am in council chambers.

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The proposed site for the new library at Queens Place lies at the end of the driveway beside the sledding hill. Photo Ed Halverson

Members of the Astor theatre want permission to pursue grants for a new air conditioning system and councillors are concerned about ballooning costs for the new library at Queens place.

The late additions made for an exciting agenda at Tuesday’s Region of Queens council meeting.

The meeting got underway with presentations from the property valuation services corporation or PVSC. The organization explained how they assess properties before providing that information to municipalities to use when collecting property tax.

The next presentation was an update from the recreation and healthy communities department.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, members of the Astor Theatre made their case for why they want permission to install air conditioning. They say climate change has led to uncomfortably high temperatures during the summer months making the space an unsafe work environment. Because the Astor Theatre is a tenant in the Town Hall Arts and Cultural Centre, they need permission from the municipality to make any changes.

During the recommendation portion of the agenda councillors approved the placement, design, and size of the new outdoor pool which is proposed to be built alongside Queens Place. Council also took the extraordinary step of allowing the pool committee to research and write grants on behalf of the municipality. Grants will still need to be reviewed, approved and submitted by municipal staff.

A study on the feasibility of servicing two new proposed subdivisions in Mount Pleasant will go ahead. Councillors approved spending up to $21,000 for CBCL engineering to undertake a six-week study to determine if there is the capacity to handle water and wastewater flow and demand to the proposed developments. The results of that study are expected to come back to council sometime in April.

Next, councillors debated and ultimately approved the Astor Theatre’s request to apply for grants to install air conditioning. We’ll have more on this story in the coming days.

Eight items were on the agenda for the discussion portion of the meeting.

Council received updates on their implementation report and a financial review for the third quarter.

The province of Nova Scotia is conducting an economic study on the ferry service from Maine to Nova Scotia and approached municipalities in southern Nova Scotia for feedback on the evaluation criteria.

Council was informed environmental documents pertaining to the Mersey River wind farm project can be viewed at the regional administration office and the Thomas Raddall library. The project includes plans to install 35 wind turbines on the site.

Council then discussed property tax exemptions and set a date of March 3rd to begin discussing their 2023-24 budget.

The South Queens Chamber of Commerce asked the Region to assume responsibility for the hanging flower baskets on display on posts in Liverpool. Council discussed taking on the project but determined in fairness, it should be expanded to include Caledonia as well. Staff will investigate the specifics of the request and bring a report back to council.

Finally, council discussed the construction of the new library at Queens Place.

Around the table councillors say they’ve been hearing concerns from residents that the Region has not looked for other sources of funding for the project. Some also feel the location at Queens Place was misrepresented as the best option.

Councillors who had opposed siting the new library at Queens Place dropped their opposition when they believed it would be the most cost-effective option. During the discussion it was revealed the construction of the road and other infrastructure leading to the library could add over $900,000 to the cost.

Council will be looking for staff to provide more information and a clearer accounting of all costs when the library is brought back for discussion at the next meeting.

That meeting will take place Tuesday February 28th at 6:00 PM in council chambers.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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