Mayor John Morgan of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality says the lack of a strategy between his municipality and the senior levels of government to finance new multimillion-dollar federal wastewater regulations could be a launching pad to a second...
SYDNEY ? With pressure mounting for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to meet multimillion-dollar federal wastewater guidelines, regional council may have to consider heading back to court to fight for fairer equalization transfers from the province, Mayor John Morgan said.
In a recent year-end interview with the Cape Breton Post, Morgan said there is no funding strategy from the senior levels of government. That could force the municipality to launch another lawsuit against the province because it can?t afford to implement the Canada-wide municipal wastewater effluent strategy at a cost of approximately $454 million.
?I think what?s obvious in the subsequent period after the case was heard by the court is that really the provincial government had no intention of ever negotiating. They simply do not want to fix that issue (of equalization),? Morgan said.
Construction and operation of eight wastewater treatment facilities, which according to federal legislation must be built over the next decade, will cost $425 million. These wastewater facilities must begin operation by 2021 because the communities fall within the high-risk level category for raw sewage discharge.
With the inclusion of building and upgrading wastewater facilities in medium- and low-risk level communities, the cost jumps another $30 million to be constructed over 30 years.
The municipality will be in contravention of Environment Canada?s Wastewater Systems Effluent regulations if it fails to comply.
Earlier this year, regional council passed a motion instructing staff to halt spending on the wastewater strategy until the provincial government provides a ?reasonable approach? before it would commit anymore money.
A Service Nova Scotia spokesperson said last month provincial officials have been encouraging CBRM staff to continue work on developing a wastewater strategy.
?The three levels of government have not reached any kind of agreement in terms of who?s going to cost-share what and what that?s going to look like,? said Celeste Sulliman.
The province is currently reviewing all programs and services, including the distribution of equalization funding to municipalities. It?s expected the government will release the report in the spring.
The CBRM?s legal case, launched in 2004, was based on Section 36 of the Constitution Act, which places an obligation on the province to provide a reasonably comparable level of service to residents for comparable taxation.
Following rejection of its argument at both the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, the CBRM made an application to have the issue heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. However, the high court declined to hear the case in December 2009, effectively killing the lawsuit.?
Ever since, the municipality has remained steadfast in its position that it?s not getting enough money to close the gap with other municipalities in the province.
A closed-door meeting in Sydney on Sept. 30 with Premier Darrell Dexter did little to bring both sides closer together on the equalization issue.
Dexter asked for greater co-operation and to focus on some bedrock infrastructure projects, but Morgan said that wasn?t possible when the province continued to support policies that ?starve the region.?
Morgan said council has put in place the groundwork to return to court proceedings by refusing to spend more money on the wastewater strategy.
?Inevitably, the federal government is going to appropriately say these (facilities) are going to need to be constructed to comply with international law,? he said.
?So the groundwork is really being set ... to get a statement of whether or not all citizens of our country have an entitlement to comparable services at comparable tax rates, as is stated in the Constitution.?
With the province remaining largely silent on the wastewater issue, the mayor said, the CBRM is facing its first progress report on implementation of the wastewater strategy this June.
?Some (provincial) bureaucrats have suggested that we ought to try to borrow over 50 years, and that might be a mechanism by which we fund it. The challenge, of course, is that it?s simply not sustainable. There would be no way we would be able to do that,? he said.
Ottawa has also suggested the gas tax fund money each municipality receives could be used against the cost of constructing wastewater facilities.
However, the CBRM has already ruled that out, as it only receives approximately $7 million annually from the fund. That?s not enough to cover the construction of these facilities or the estimated $10 million in operating costs each year, Morgan said.
Neither is the solution found in raising residential and commercial taxes, he said.
Tax rates have remained steady in the CBRM since 2001, and that?s unlikely to change, according to Morgan, who said residents need property tax and service stability as the municipality fights for a fairer equalization formula.
?The concern I have in either raising taxes or engaging in drastic austerity is it?s the municipal government acting as a surrogate for the province in taking punitive measures against our own people. We ought to be fighting the province for fairness rather than fighting with our own citizens.?
Entering a municipal election year, this is likely to continue to be a hot topic.
Morgan said he intends to seek a fourth term as mayor.
cshannon@cbpost.com
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