County Warden Ron Baillie said during a finance meeting Monday that he and CAO Brian Cullen recently met with municipal units in Colchester and Cumberland counties in hopes of coming to an agreement about forming the Regional Enterprise Network.
“A co-operative agreement has been signed and the CAOs will now sit together and make up an intergovernmental agreement that we will hope will be in place by the end of the year,” said Baillie.
When the federal government pulled its funding from regional development agencies, the province announced that six regional enterprise networks would be formed to promote economic development across Nova Scotia.
New Glasgow and the Municipality of Pictou County attended this meeting with units in Colchester and Cumberland counties and Baillie has since sent out an email asking if the other five municipal units in the county want to be part of the intergovernmental development agreement.
During the initial stages, it was suggested that Pictou, Antigonish and Guysborough might form one REN but since this time the Municipality of Pictou County pulled away from this group and began discussions with municipal units in Cumberland County and the Town of Truro. The County of Colchester said it is not interested in joining this RENS at this time, but is keeping its options open for future involvement.
Baillie said the intergovernmental agreement will come before councils by the end of August, but because some councils don’t meet over the summer months, it could take a few months for it to get approved.
“We aren’t near getting into action, but the ball is rolling,” he said.
