All this talk of a charter, with very little understanding of what it is. Here is a quick and simple explanation.
CBRM is one of 50 municipalities that comprise the Province of Nova Scotia. There are 5 municipalities in Cape Breton: CBRM, Port Hawkesbury, Richmond, Inverness, and Victoria.
Municipalities are governed by an elected Mayor and council. The Mayor and council have certain powers to manage the municipality.
These powers are granted to them by the Province of Nova Scotia in a legal document called the Municipal Government Act (MGA). This document describes how property can be sold, how taxes are set, how officials are elected, and other governing activities.
If the Mayor and council want to do something in their municipality that is beyond the powers granted to them in the MGA, they have to ask permission from the Province. Asking permission can be a long and drawn out political and legal process that can take months or years, with no certainty of success. This process of asking permission is generally considered to be too slow and bureaucratic to accomplish anything that is timely and meaningful.
A Charter is simply a document that grants additional powers to the Mayor and Council of a municipality so that they can make important decisions specific to their own municipalities.
While it may make sense to have all 50 municipalities governed by the same rules, if the rules are too strict, it makes it difficult, or impossible, for each municipality to respond to the specific needs of its citizens.
CBRM is seeking to have a Charter drafted for the municipality. Public sessions are being held, such as this video-recorded council meeting.
The Halifax Regional Municipality has had a Charter for several years, although, some consider it to be ineffective because it was not drafted properly.
It may be argued that whatever additional powers CBRM would like to have in a Charter, should perhaps also be enacted within the Municipal Government Act (MGA) so that all 50 municipalities in Nova Scotia will be granted the same powers. Others might argue that a Charter should be specific to the municipality in which it is designed to help because it could include powers that are very specific to solving the current needs of a municipality and may also include expiration dates for these powers.
What do you think? Comment below ...
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