The Queens District RCMP detachment in Liverpool is closed to the public for the next six to nine months. (Rick Conrad)
The Queens District RCMP detachment at 20 Shore Rd. in Liverpool will be closed to the public for the next six to nine months while the office undergoes renovations.
RCMP announced the closure on its Facebook page this week. The office closed April 24.
The Mounties are asking people not to visit the detachment while it’s closed. If you have a requests for a criminal record or vulnerable sector check, RCMP staff will be at the Region of Queens offices at 249 White Point Rd. in Liverpool, on Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and on Thursdays from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
If you need fingerprinting, contact Queens District RCMP at 902-354-5721.
RCMP officers will continue to provide policing services in Queens during the closure. To speak with an officer or to report a crime, call 902-354-5721. For emergencies, call 911.
Region of Queens councillors plan to ask RCMP to step up enforcement efforts at the three-way stop at Main and Market streets in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)
Queens County councillors grappled with traffic safety in downtown Liverpool at their meeting on Tuesday evening.
The intersection at Main and Market streets has been the scene of some close calls between motorists and pedestrians. And in January, a 79-year-old woman was hit in the crosswalk and taken to hospital in Bridgewater. A driver was charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk.
The incident reignited concern in the community about that intersection and others in town. Councillors heard from their constituents that they needed to address safety in that area.
Some residents want the municipality to install pedestrian-controlled crosswalk lights.
At their Jan. 23 meeting, councillors asked staff to review previous reports and studies about that intersection and come back with recommendations. They also asked staff to investigate adding fluorescent orange flags at that intersection for pedestrians to use while they cross.
On Tuesday evening, some councillors were in favour of trying the flags, while others were opposed. It would cost $1,050 to put the flags at each of the three corners of the intersection. The idea has been used in the Halifax region at many crosswalks, but not at those controlled by stop signs.
Adam Grant, the region’s director of engineering and public works, said he spoke with the community group in Halifax behind those flags.
The citizens’ group Crosswalk Safety Society of Nova Scotia began putting the orange flags at intersections in 2008 after a teenager was killed in a Dartmouth crosswalk. According to the group’s website, it got approval from the province in 2011 to allow crosswalk flags on provincial roads. They are now found in Hubbards, Hantsport, Aylesford, Berwick, New Ross, Bridgewater, Chester and Windsor.
Grant said the reception to them in the Halifax region is mixed. And he told councillors there is no evidence that installing the flags at Main and Market would improve pedestrian safety.
“I don’t feel comfortable consenting to the installation, quite frankly, as the traffic authority.
“Any time we introduce anything to a situation which doesn’t have a clear and direct guideline with substantiated evidence determined by professionals, we’re introducing liability. For me to suggest putting these in place will improve safety when I don’t know they will would be contradictory to my intent.”
Councillors decided to defer the flag discussion to a later date.
Grant said that pedestrian-controlled lights at the intersection could interrupt traffic flow and create more problems. He said it’s unusual to install the lights at a three-way stop.
A 2015 study by Insight Traffic Engineering did not recommend installing lights at the intersection. Instead, it suggested changing some signage, remove any trees or greenery obstructing visibility and moving the stop sign and crosswalk from the western approach on Main Street.
The study found that existing traffic control wasn’t an issue, though it did recommend council at the time ask Queens District RCMP to step up enforcement.
Grant told councillors Tuesday that conditions at the intersection haven’t changed since that 2015 report, and that there was no increase in the rate of collisions over the past 10 years, according to the RCMP.
Mayor Darlene Norman suggested leaving the issue for the next council to tackle after municipal elections in October.
District 6 Coun. David Brown said he’d like the region’s police advisory board to discuss increased enforcement with the RCMP at their next meeting, likely in late May.
“It sounds more like a compliance issue,” Brown said.
“Once you make an example of a few peole and word gets out that there are potential fines for jaywalking or entering the intersection illegally when you’re driving, word will get around and pepole will take the extra time and look at what they’re doing.”
Norman said she believes that’s a good idea, and that police need to keep up the enforcement efforts for many days, and at all times of the day.
“And fines. Not warnings, but fines for rolling stops, for all of those things, because it might be the pedestrian once in a while who darts out, but it’s often the vehicle driver.”
Region of Queens councillors Jack Fancy, David Brown and Vicki Amirault in a file photo. (Rick Conrad)
The Region of Queens plans to increase the income threshold for people eligible for the low-income property tax exemption.
As part of budget discussions on Tuesday, District 6 Coun. David Brown asked council to consider increasing the income brackets for those eligible for the tax break.
“We know there’s been a lot of inflation this year and the consumer price index went up 3.4 per cent,” Brown said.
“We end up with bracket creep. I know some people are getting small raises in their pensions, small raises in the EI rate, and minimum wage that could price them out of that benefit. So we could be clawing back what little benefit they gained out of inflation.”
Property owners who make $20,000 a year or less are eligible for a maximum $400 tax exemption. Those who make between $20,000 and $25,000 get up to $350, and those making between $25,000 and $30,000 get as much as a $300 break.
The revised income amounts would add $5,000 to each of those brackets. So the lowest income bracket would now be up to $25,000, and then $25,001 to $30,000 and $30,001 to $35,000. The tax exemption amounts would not change.
Brown originally wanted council to increase the income brackets by the same rate as inflation. That would have added about $680 to the lowest income group and about $1,000 to the highest.
But District 3 Coun. Maddie Charlton said council should increase the top bracket by $5,000. She said the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg recently changed its low-income tax exemption to give people a 14 per cent boost in savings on their property taxes.
“I think upping that to the $35,000 is more than reasonable and helps those who need it the most,” Charlton said.
Council decided to increase each income category by $5,000.
“We’re talking about the lowest (paid) and the poorest in our society who need the most help from us,” Brown said. “And it’s a small amount of money to be able to help those who need it the most. I think it’s something we should do.”
The region originally set aside $125,000 for the low-income tax exemption in their 2024/25 budget. CAO Cody Joudry said staff would add another $10,000 for it in the budget.
The increase will be funded from the municipality’s accumulated surplus special operating reserve fund, which sits at just over $10 million.
Council is holding a special meeting on Monday at 9 a.m. at the region’s offices to vote on the final budget.
Region of Queens councillors are getting closer to finalizing their 2024/25 budget. (Pixabay)
The Region of Queens is getting closer to finalizing its budget for the 2024/25 fiscal year.
Councillors will go over the draft operating, capital and water utility budgets at their meeting Tuesday evening at 6. It will give councillors a chance to make any other changes before voting on the final package.
They’re proposing to have a special council meeting next Monday at 9 a.m. for that final vote.
Councillors are coming off a 2023/24 budget that ended up with an estimated $650,000 surplus.
So far, the region is proposing a balanced budget for 24/25, with no increases to the base tax rate.
Councillors and staff have worked over the past month to avoid any tax rate increases, even as they added expenditures, such as an extra $126,772 to help the region’s fire departments pay for rising costs to replace trucks.
Also on Tuesday, councillors are set to discuss crosswalk safety at the three-way stop at Main and Market streets in Liverpool, as well as speed limit reductions in certain parts of Liverpool.
The meeting is in council chambers on White Point Road, and it will also be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube.
Region of Queens councillors want planning for an accessible washroom at the inclusive play park in Liverpool to begin this year. (Rick Conrad)
Region of Queens councillors want to move up plans for an accessible washroom at Liverpool’s universally designed inclusive play park.
The region set aside about $400,000 for the facilities in the 2025/26 capital improvement plan. But District 1 Coun. Kevin Muise urged councillors on Tuesday to move it up a year. Otherwise, he said he’s worried it won’t get built at all.
The $600,000 play park was opened next to Queens Place Emera Centre in October 2023. It was made possible by a combination of community fundraising and municipal and provincial funding.
The region rented an accessible portable toilet for the site last year.
Muise said he’d prefer planning for the accessible washroom facilities to begin sooner than later, especially with the $21.5-million Mount Pleasant water and sewer extension work due to begin this year.
“I’m not saying that it’s going to be built this summer. I know in reality it’s not going to happen, but if we don’t start doing some planning, … it’s not going to be built next summer either. … Put it on the budget for this year. But if we leave it till next year, we’re going to be having the same argument again. It’s not going to be there for next summer.”
Mayor Darlene Norman said she was worried about overwhelming the region’s already thinly stretched public works staff.
Councillors decided to add it to the 2024/25 capital plan and get as much planning work done on it this year as possible.
Fire trucks at North Queens Fire Association headquarters. (Facebook)
Region of Queens councillors and staff have found a way to help the county’s fire departments with the increased costs of buying new equipment — and all without raising the tax rate.
Councillors are currently in budget deliberations, so the final budget has not been approved. But they headed off a request for an increase to the tax rate to help fire departments pay for new trucks.
Fire chiefs and the region agreed to a new funding schedule in February to replace fire and rescue trucks. The region increased its contribution to $425,000 for pumpers, tankers and aerial trucks from $275,000. That kicks in for the 2026/27 fiscal year.
But as councillors heard on Tuesday, new trucks keep getting more expensive. And higher interest rates mean that borrowing costs for fire departments have skyrocketed.
Fire chiefs made a presentation to council on Tuesday asking for an increase of one cent to the region’s overall tax rate.
The residential property tax rate per $100 of assessment in districts 1 to 12 is at $1.07 and $1.92 in District 13.
Chris Wolfe, chief of the North Queens Fire Association, told council that interest rates for fire departments have risen to 8.2 per cent from 3.45 per cent in 2021. On a 10-year loan of $600,000, fire departments would have to pay $170,000 more over that period than they would have in 2021.
“Basically the $275,000 that we get now for truck replacement would be just gobbled up in interest charges and wouldn’t be going to the actual principal of buying the truck,” he said.
“The interest for that 10-year term is what’s making a big difference for us in the Queens County fire services in purchasing trucks. It’s taken a drastic jump over the last three or four years.”
Wolfe said the cost of trucks has also risen in the past three years. He said a truck builder in Lantz reported that the cost of a custom fire chassis has jumped by about $120,000 since May 2022. The truck builder told Wolfe that his overall supply costs have also gone up by three per cent.
Three trucks are due to be replaced over the next two fiscal years, but at the region’s lower contribution of $275,000.
Wolfe said that a one-cent increase in the tax rate now would help the fire departments cope with the increased costs.
Councillors appeared to be prepared to grant the chiefs’ request.
CAO Cody Joudry, however, suggested that staff might be able to find another way to grant the chiefs’ request without adding to the tax rate.
After a break, Joanne Veinotte, director of corporate services, said that councillors could do what they did last year to help maintain the tax rate.
During last year’s discussions, they budgeted $442,000 from the accumulated surplus to prevent a tax rate increase. Councillors are also eyeing an estimated $650,000 surplus from 2023/24.
Veinotte said the region didn’t actually need any of that $442,000 because they saved money on staffing and delayed capital projects. She suggested they could do the same thing this year, by pulling $126,772 from reserve funds for fire services to balance the tax rate.
“The fire department has their increase of a penny but yet you still have your no increase in tax rate. And that is something I can literally do in two minutes. So if that’s what council feels comfortable with to get this budget done and put to bed, then I can certainly do that.”
Joudry clarified that if they record a surplus in 2024/25, then the region likely wouldn’t have to dip into the accumulated surplus to pay for the fire departments’ increased truck costs.
Councillors will get the final draft of the budget on Thursday. They hope to approve it at their council meeting on Tues., April 23 at 6 p.m.
Region of Queens administration building. Photo Ed Halverson
The Region of Queens is expecting a budget surplus of $650,000 for the 2023/24 fiscal year, largely attributed to unfilled jobs, higher property assessments and a higher than expected take from the deed transfer tax.
Mayor Darlene Norman says the surplus isn’t all good news.
“Everyone’s a bit unhappy over that large surplus from last year, because that means we have staffing vacancies which is putting great pressures, especially on our Planning and our Public Works departments,” Norman said in an interview Wednesday.
“They are the two departments that have the greatest effect on people. Public Works we have projects that we were not able to do last year, such as the Liverpool bridge rail. The Old Burial Ground wall is in drastic need of a repair. The staffing vacancy is highly alarming. We hear as elected people from people who are waiting for the building permits, who are waiting for their inspections, who are having subdivision waits. That causes difficulty for our residents when they’re building and planning, be they commercial or residential.”
Queens councillors began their 2024/25 budget deliberations on Tuesday. Staff sent them details of the draft budget a few weeks ago. Councillors had a chance on Tuesday to ask questions about the proposed budget.
The budget process was delayed this year. All municipalities are supposed to have their budgets approved by March 31.
Norman said other municipalities in Nova Scotia have missed the March 31 deadline as well. Now that the region has filled the CAO position, she said she expects a more timely approach next year.
The proposed budget is just under $30 million, with an $8.5-million capital plan. There are no proposed tax rate increases at this time. But councillors are just beginning the process.
Councillors are set to offer additions or deletions to the budget at a meeting on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Next Tuesday (April 16) at 9 a.m., Norman said the region’s fire services are scheduled to make a presentation to council where they’re expected to ask for a boost in funding.
The vote on the final budget is scheduled for April 23 at 6 p.m. All meetings are open to the public and are held at council chambers on White Point Road. And they will also be livestreamed on the region’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
The region’s assessment roll increased by about 14 per cent or $148 million. That led to an estimated tax revenue increase of $1.6 million. But that meant that the amount the region pays the province for education services also went up by $500,000, for a net gain to the region of $1.1 million.
The higher-than-expected deed transfer tax revenue was about $340,000.
Staff are also budgeting a $440,000 vacancy allowance to try to account for the difficulty in filling positions.
“The thought is we are not going to be able to staff all those positions right away and there may be up to $440,000 of money that we have budgeted for this year that does not get spent on staffing,” Norman said.
“So we’re actually planning to be able to put that money into revenue rather than see it as an end-of-the-year surplus. It’s a tricky thing to do, because if there’s a miracle and we suddenly fill those vacant positions, then we’re going to be short that money on our revenue line on the budget. However, the last several years have not been conducive to filling some of those staff positions.”
Norman said that a couple of big capital expenses are not in the 2024/25 capital budget. The region is still working on funding for the proposed $8-million outdoor pool at Queens Place. And it is still doing studies and investigating funding for the requested $21-million extension of water and sewer services to the Mount Pleasant area.
The Region of Queens was testing its livestream on Wednesday on its YouTube channel. (YOUTUBE)
The Region of Queens will begin livestreaming its council meetings on April 11.
Councillors voted unanimously on Tuesday to begin the new service, which will be broadcast simultaneously on the municipality’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Comments will be disabled on the livestream. Staff said that it would take tax staff resources to moderate the comments in real time. The meetings would be available for replays on the region’s YouTube channel, and possibly its Facebook page.
All public meetings in council chambers are currently recorded and uploaded to the region’s YouTube channel, usually the day after the meeting.
In February 2023, councillors asked about the possibility of livestreaming their meetings once a new audio-video system was installed. That new system was installed last April.
Councillors asked staff to investigate the possibility of livestreaming. Staff consulted with 17 other municipalities who currently livestream their meetings.
Livestreaming on Facebook and YouTube is free. But the region may have to spend some money on a mixing board so that pauses in the meeting for breaks or in camera sessions would not interrupt the live broadcast.
Staff have estimated it would cost about $3,000 for that equipment.
Councillors are currently in budget discussions. If they went for that option, they would have to add that to next year’s budget.
The April 11 meeting which is scheduled to be livestreamed will be one of the budget meetings. Councillors are set to discuss the preliminary draft of the budget from 6 to 9 p.m. this Thursday.
A rendering of the Queens Neighbourhood Co-operative Housing development planned for Liverpool. (QNCH)
An affordable housing development for Liverpool could break ground by this fall.
Queens Neighbourhood Co-operative Housing is planning a 26-unit development off Lawrence Street that will include one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom units in two separate buildings.
It’s passive design, net zero-ready housing that will welcome tenants from all income groups.
The group was formed as a result of consultations by the Queens Care Society, which identified transportation and housing as vital for Queens County’s older population.
The Region of Queens sold the land to the group for $1 and rezoned the area. It also committed $203,000 toward the project.
Initially, the group expected to start construction this spring. But now they hope to break ground later this year.
Earl Mielke, with Inclusive Homes Consulting, has been working with the Queens Neighbourhood Co-operative Housing board. He said Monday that there have been some delays in the initial work on design and preparation.
But he said they’re at the final stages of the design, and are working now with a cost consultant, before they make funding requests to the province and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. CMHC requires groups to use a cost consultant because it wants a good idea of the final project cost.
“We hope to have our funding in place and a contractor hired, realistically late fall. Early fall, late fall, it all depends on how quickly the funders turn the funding over. And the availability of contracts is a big factor.
“Realistically, we really hope to get something started there by the end of this year.”
He said the group expects the whole project to be in the $6-$7-million range, though that could change as the project progresses.
“A lot of it will depend on the funders. But what we’re getting from the feds and the province, they’re really anxious to get some wins for affordable housing. The initial discussions we’ve had are very positive. We’re seen as one of the more shovel-ready on this scale. Things are going well.”
Mielke said rent for the units will be based on a mixed-income approach. Rents will be at or below the median market rate.
He said that could mean the highest rent would be about $1,200 a month. But he cautioned that that could change depending on final construction costs.
“A mix of incomes, the rents are all basically the same across the board. It’s just a matter of what types of rent supplement or income testing assistance will be available. And a lot of that is negotiated with the province.
“If you have a single pensioner on old age pension, they can’t afford $1,200 a month. So there will be units that will be designated for people on lesser incomes.”
Mielke says this is just the first of what the group hopes will be more affordable housing developments in other areas of Queens.
“The intent is do this one, do it really well and then move into another neighbourhood. Initially, it was like 100 units over three years. Now it’s more like 100 units over three to five years. … We’re just looking at ways to … get more affordable housing.”
