County Council has taken the next step to improving economic development in the area.
Councillors agreed to the terms of an inter-municipal agreement for a Pictou County Regional Enterprise Network that will be focused on economic development for all five towns and the county.
Brian Cullen, CAO for the county, highlighted some points for councillors during Tuesday’s monthly meeting. He said it has taken several weeks to work on some of the issues so that all council representatives were happy. Local councils are expected to each vote on it this month.
RENs will provide regional economic leadership and help develop regional economic strategies, while supporting small, local businesses. They were introduced in 2013 after the federal government cut funding to the 12 regional development agencies in the province. There are currently six RENS established in Nova Scotia.
It’s estimated the REN would cost between $300,000 and $350,000 to operate annually, with the six municipalities and the province each contributing half. The province agreed to pay $166,000.
Cullen said one of the points that remained unchanged from the beginning of negotiations was the 50/50 funding formula that involves half of the $166,000 being split evenly between the six municipalities and the remaining half based on municipal population. County council estimated in the early stages of REN’s development that its portion would be slightly more than $50,000.
Outstanding money from the now defunct Pictou Regional Development Agency, which each municipal unit paid into at one point or another, will go towards the cost of RENS, but will not have an effect on the individual municipal contributions.
Cullen said there is about $225,000 in municipal funding available from the former PRDA and there was some concern expressed around the negotiating table that Stellarton should not benefit from this money because it was not a member of the PRDA when it was dissolved.
However, he pointed out that Stellarton was a member in the past and did make municipal contributions to the former agency. It was noted by Warden Robert Parker that this is one of many concessions made among the municipal units in order to get the inter-municipal agreement to an approval stage.
It was also made clear in the agreement that RENS would focus on economic development and not community development. RENs will have its own board of directors, independent from any municipal council. The board of directors will have eight to 12 members and will be in charge of recruiting and appointing its own chief executive officer.
Each council would have a representative on the liaison committee that will provide advice and input to the board of directors and ensure the board is accountable for outcomes by achieving the goals it establishes in a regional strategy.
The liaison committee will make sure the board has excellent financial management by reviewing its audit reports and monitoring its financial affairs.
Parker pointed out that based on tips from other RENs, it is important that board of directors and the liaison committee have a good working relationship with a lot of communication.
All municipal agreements are locked into the REN for five years. On the fifth anniversary, a unit can withdraw, but only at this time, or they will be locked in for another period of time.
Parker said he is still hoping that Pictou Landing First Nations will join the agreement.
“This is meant to be for the whole county and everyone has been working together for the past two and half years to make this happen,” he said. “Hopefully it will pass all councils and we can get on with it.”
Coun. Larry Turner, who was a member of the soon to be dissolved economic working group, will sit on the liaison committee on behalf of the county.
“There has been a real culture of co-operation with all of the units involved,” he said. “We worked towards finding common ground, but we did come to an agreement that will move the county forward. It was a real culture of co-operation.”
