HRM councillor calls on province to provide more support amid COVID-19

A Halifax Regional Municipality councillor says it's time for the Nova Scotia government to "step up to the plate" and help with the financial crisis municipalities are facing, but Premier Stephen McNeil says that's already happening.

During a council meeting Tuesday as the municipality continues to deal with a budget that's had a hole blown through it by the side effects of COVID-19, Coun. Bill Karsten accused the Nova Scotia government of being "mute on the urgency that we're facing."

"This is an emergency, this is a crisis," he said. "I just get frustrated because that urgency doesn't seem to come through."

With the coronavirus pandemic causing businesses to shut down and people to lose their jobs, municipalities across Canada are struggling to find ways to make up for massive tax revenue shortfalls as they try to finalize budgets.

Premier says help for municipalities a constant topic

Karsten said everything he and his colleagues are considering, which has included layoffs and cuts to services and programs, amounts to "Band-Aid solutions." The only real answer is for the provincial and federal governments "to come to the aid of municipalities across the country," he said.

All provinces must work with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to develop support programs for municipalities, said Karsten, who is also president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

But Premier Stephen McNeil said "it would be news to me" if his government was holding up any potential support programs with the federal government.

During his regular COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, McNeil said his government has been working with HRM staff to get a sense of what projects it needs help with and what funding model would help other than the traditional three-way split with Ottawa, the province and municipality.

McNeil said Municipal Affairs Minister Chuck Porter is having similar conversations with municipal politicians across the province.

"As you can appreciate, what is an issue for one municipality may not be for another simply by sheer size and how it works and the services that are being provided to their [residents]," he said.

Last month, the province announced a $380-million loan program to help municipalities over a three-year period. McNeil said his government is now looking at whether it could amortise those loans over a longer period of time.

He said anytime the premiers are speaking either among themselves or with the prime minister, issues come up related to municipalities. McNeil said Atlantic premiers have also told the prime minister that any programs geared toward municipalities need to "reflect the varying sizes of municipalities."

"Everything can't be made to fit a model of Toronto or Vancouver and ignoring the fact that we have many smaller municipalities across the province that will require support," he said.

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