NS municipalities facing $66.5 million shortfall

Municipalities across Nova Scotia are facing “dire financial straits.”

That’s according to a newly released report from the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities. 

It says, without provincial and federal assistance to help with the revenue shortfall of $66.6 million, tax rates across the province could spike by an average of 7.1 per cent. 

Losses in transit revenue alone account for $23-million, or approximately one-third of the total shortfall. 

Pam Mood is the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, and she tells The Rick Howe Show, getting assistance from the provincial and federal governments will be crucial.

“The only ways we can continue to provide services, I’m talking police, fire, collecting garbage, recreation, all those things, is if we have the revenue to do that,” she says.

Mood says she knows the province is working with federal government departments on the matter, and she’s hoping it’s only a matter of time before the revenue shortfall is resolved.