Councillor’s Communiqué : February 2005 - Issue # 87

The recent tax rate structure changes, that happened a couple of years ago, only took into account the operational/maintenance cost of the five fire halls in District 3 when the area rated fire departments rates were rolled into the general tax rate. Our HRM-owned and Community-owned facilities were left out of the loop for any significant operational aid. As you know, all HRM facilities inside the Urban Core (ie: North Preston Community Centre) have their net operational costs satisfied by the Urban Tax Rate. That is not the case in the rural parts of HRM.

Volunteers are burning out and fund-raising efforts are drying up. Most of these facilities are or will be encountering demands to meet their operational costs. I hope to have some Public Consultation about extending the current District 3 Area Rate for Capital Projects (that's about to expire) and have it amended and adjusted to help these community organizations and volunteer groups with the operational needs for our District 3 community-based facilities. Most of these groups operate and manage HRM-owned properties. Without them, HRM would be expected to come to the forefront to provide for these much needed services or close them entirely. Instead, HRM has been the beneficiary of our local volunteers.

The following District 3 community-based facilities that ought to be covered by this partial operational aid annually are:

1. East Preston Recreation Centre

I plan to do a comprehensive community consultation with a universal newsletter, E-mails, survey and questionnaire followed by a series of town-hall meetings to discuss the survey / questionnaire findings about this matter. As well, it will be expected that all of the affected organizations will discuss this issue with their membership at their own public meetings. I expect that this issue will be quite controversial for some; with Assessment Notices out and people screaming "we can't afford any more taxes", but in return ask yourself "what will we do, or be, without these local facilities and services?"

The program will highlight 'Vial of Life' which will see volunteers make available small prescription vials and a one page medication sheet to our seniors to place in their fridge for use by emergency personnel. The RCMP will also set up a voluntary registration for seniors in an attempt to have a data base available in the event of a large scale emergency where the safety of our seniors can be monitored.

Other information services such as Telecare, fraud scams, safety tips, Alzheimer Registry, safe driving, and "Operation Identification" will allow our seniors to have their valuables marked and recorded for security purposes at no cost to them.

Any questions in relation to this program can be directed to Constable Brian Veniot - Cole Harbour RCMP at 426-8703.