Newfoundland and Labrador's newest town? George's Brook-Milton to vote next month
A local service district in Eastern Newfoundland could become the province's 277th town, depending on which way the roughly 800 residents of George's Brook-Milton vote next month.
The consulting company has completed a feasibility study that recommends the district become a town to take advantage of increased provincial funding.
"We're going to get so much money in the gas tax, so much money in utility tax," said Manuel Ellis, who's lived in the area all of his life.
"But with that money that's coming, we're going to need a town clerk, we're going to need a town hall. In the future we're going to have to operate the town roads."
Ellis attended a public meeting earlier this month for a presentation from LW Consulting, the firm that completed the feasibility study, which has now been presented to the Department of Municipal Affairs.
"The consultants confirmed that George's Brook and Milton could become a town," said Ellis. "It means that if it becomes a town, then I guess it means that someday we'll be under a mill rate and we'll pay our taxes."
Ellis said it's a big decision and expects a close tally — but wouldn't say how he planned to vote.
Access to funding
Limited service districts have a limited amount of funding obtained through annual property fees paid for by residents in the community, and towns have the ability to set mill rates as well as create bylaws.
"We've always contended that we do pay our share of gas tax, much the same as you do in Gander, as you do in Glenwood. We pay our share," said district chairman Craig Pardy in an interview with CBC's Central Morning.
"We get nothing back in order to provide governance for our people here in George's Brook-Milton," he said. "We wish to have that back and we would get our share of the gas tax rebate, the federal and the provincial, if we became a town."
Pardy said as a town they would also receive a municipal operating grant based on the size of their population.
