BASE FOR SALE AGAIN?!?

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"OWNER RETIRING"

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Second Property For Sale Too?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Amazing-Priced-to-Sell-Nova-Scotia-ocean-front-land_W0QQitemZ320461100523QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLand?hash=item4a9cf855eb

OMBUDSMAN'S PETITION

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FROM CONCERNED CITIZENS

Dear Reader.... It's now been a few years, but here's the letter to the Ombudsman that started all this...... A simple reading of this document will let you know what to expect in the report when it is released to "Concerned Citizens" in the coming weeks. How our municipal governments deal with their preview will provide telling testimony about the lessons they've learned... if any.... from the exercise!

Sent by fax to : 902-424-6675
May 27, 2007


Mr. Dwight Bishop
Ombudsman, Province of Nova Scotia
5670 Spring Garden Road
Suite 700
P.O. Box 2152
Halifax, NS B3J 3B7


Subject: Complaint Against Department of Economic Development, Service Nova Scotia and Municipal Affairs, the South West Shore Development Authority (SWSDA) and its Nine Municipal Members


Dear Mr. Bishop:
We the undersigned believe that the Department of Economic Development, the nine
municipal governments who sit on SWSDA’s Board and the Department of Municipal
Affairs wittingly and illegally/irregularly permitted SWSDA to operate as an RDA under the Societies Act.

As a result, over the past 12 years many of the safeguards intended and built into the RDA Act have been skirted by SWSDA with significant deleterious financial and development effects on the taxpayers in the Municipality of Shelburne in particular and all of southwestern Nova Scotia in general. In large measure these lost financial and developmental opportunities were possible because this “arrangement” was blessed by government agencies prompting the further erosion of the principal of public accountability and the resulting loss of public control over a public institution.


The South West Shore Development Authority (SWSDA) is incorporated and has operated for some twelve years under the Societies Act rather than the Regional Community Development Act. Operating in this manner has permitted SWSDA, the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Municipal Affairs and the nine Municipal members of SWSDA to circumvent and contravene the provisions, and ignore the safeguards as well as the requirements of the Regional Community Development Act, resulting in the following:


a. RDAs should be incorporated under the appropriate Act - SWSDA is not;
b. the majority of RDA voting Board members should not be municipal representatives - the majority of SWSDA’s Board are municipal representatives (despite this situation, SWSDA claims not to be a municipal body or subject to the MGA);
c. RDA’s are not allowed to own land – SWSDA has been given and owns two major properties, has received mortgage financing from the Department of Economic Development on one of its properties and was recently given property for $1 by Order in Council and $600,000 to maintain it;
d. SWSDA has paid no property transfer tax on either of the properties it has acquired in the Municipality of Shelburne, and while it pays property tax on only one of the two properties it owns, the property tax paid by SWSDA on that one property is returned to SWSDA as a grant each year by the municipality;
e. although municipal governments are not allowed to provide loan guarantees to others, SWSDA has received frequent loan guarantees from all of its municipal members in the past and is now seeking additional guarantees thereby increasing the vulnerability of municipalities;
f. SWSDA’s ownership and management of these properties has resulted in a growing operating deficit of more than $1.5 million as of March 2007;
g. with respect to public accountability, SWSDA operates as a private society requiring Board and staff to sign confidentiality agreements and providing program/project financial reporting in a manner that makes it impossible to determine funding or expenses for any particular project;
h. while core funding reporting provides some details these are also commingled in the chart of accounts in such a manner as to make it impossible to determine the effectiveness, efficiency or economy of use of those resources – SWSDA further maintains that it is not subject to the MGA or FOIPOP, notwithstanding that it receives in excess of 99% of its funding from government, thereby making it difficult to assess audit information provided;
i. since the mid-90s taxpayers in the Municipality of Shelburne have borne the burden of the direct and indirect subsidies to SWSDA by providing grants in return for taxes, providing loans, providing loan guarantees and providing core funding;
j. now SWSDA is proposing that these same taxpayers bail SWSDA out of its deficit to help it out of its insolvency .


The Regional Community Development Act. 1996, c. 29, s. 1. at paragraph 6 provides
the Minister of Economic Development with the authority to establish, by order,
corporate bodies to be regional community development agencies.


Under the definitions section of the Act, it goes further by providing the following definition for Regional Development Agencies incorporated under the Regional Communities Development Act:


3 In this Act,
(a) "agency" means a regional community development organization established pursuant to this Act;


It is important to note that the use of the Societies Act to incorporate certain groups under the Societies Act is purposely restricted and specifically excludes the incorporation of RDAs under the Societies Act. Specifically, paragraph 3. (2) of the Societies Act. R.S., c. 435, s.1 states that:


Where any Act, other than the Companies Act, provides for the incorporation of a society for a particular object, no society shall be incorporated under this Act for that object. R.S., c. 435, s. 3.


Questions


1. Given the provisions for incorporation under the Regional Communities Development Act and the clear restriction in the Society’s Act, is SWSDA entitled to legally be incorporated as a Society?


2. If it is entitled to be incorporated as a Society, is it entitled to call itself a Regional Development Agency (RDA) given the strictures on the use of that term in the Regional Communities Development Act?


3. If it is entitled to be incorporated as a Society under the Societies Act, is it entitled to the funding earmarked and approved for the use of RDAs that is provided under the Community Economic Development Program of the Canada/Nova Scotia COOPERATION Agreement on Economic Diversification.


4. If it is entitled to be incorporated as a Society under the Societies Act, is the SWSDA a municipal body as defined in the MGA?


5. If it is a municipal body, what obligations does SWSDA have respecting the conduct of its annual audit and its chart of accounts?


6. If it is a municipal body, what are the Auditor General’s responsibilities respecting SWSDA’s operations?


7. If it is not a municipal body and it is not an RDA, do taxpayers have any obligation to


provide SWSDA with any financial support?


8. If it is an RDA, how did it become an RDA given the detailed process for the creation and formulation of RDAs found in the Regional Communities Development Act?


9. If SWSDA is an RDA do the strictures related to RDAs found in the Act, provincial guidelines, regulations and official government web sites apply to SWSDA?


10. If they do not, why don’t they?


11. If they do, who is responsible for ensuring that provincial requirements for SWSDA as an RDA are enforced?


12. If SWSDA is an RDA and RDAs are not allowed to own land, should the two properties that were transferred in error to SWSDA by government be returned to the Province and/or the Federal Government?


13. If not, why not.


14. If SWSDA is prohibited from being a Society under the Societies Act and it was never incorporated as an RDA under the Rural Communities Development Act, does it have any legitimate legal status?


As taxpayers, we grow increasingly concerned by the failures of Provincial and Municipal officials to properly manage this portfolio. Their failure to do so has further thrust additional taxes on our communities over the past twelve years and now has created a financial crisis with significant property tax implications in our communities. Your kind assistance would be appreciated. If we can provide additional information please let us know.


Yours very truly,

A. A. Cayer

Timothy Gillespie

Willa Magee

HISTORIC MEETING - INSIDE SCOOP!

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DEPUTY MINISTER MEETS SWSDA BOARD

On Friday the 11th of December the Deputy Minister met with the Mayors and Wardens from three counties who are responsible for the sound administration of the South West Shore Development Authority. As previously reported, the meeting was to discuss the SWSDA request for $500,000 additional loan guarantee backed by govt. The bail-out is needed because SWSDA is apparently on the brink of bankruptcy. Just before the meeting all voting SWSDA board members received a copy of the long-anticipated Ombudsman's Report, which will certainly be very critical of SWSDA operating and governance practices.

WHAT WAS LIKELY DISCUSSED AT THE MEETING AND SOME POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

..... the Province is still unwilling to back the $500,000 with the information they have at hand. Govt sources in Halifax say that requests from the govt for more information have gone unheeded.

..... The Ombudsman's report was likely thorough and almost cerainly responded in detail to the questions asked by Concerned Citizens 30 months ago (see copy here) and the SWSDA board has until January 8th (25 days and counting) to make comments on the report.

.... it is no secret that Board Governance... or should I say a lack of sound Governance by the SWSDA Board members - is a major problem.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?


Ask your Mayor, Warden or Board Member.... they are the ones responsible for fixing the mal-administration of this essential development agency in our midst....Municipal, Provincial and Federal Governments endow them with trust, information and millions of taxpayer dollars each year. The Ombudsman has concluded that management of the organziation needs change...... Find out what our municipal representatives on the Board intend to do about it.... ASK THEM... call, write or stop them on the street.... but ask if you want them to know you are concerned and you care!