{"id":101680,"date":"2026-10-29T08:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T11:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/?p=101680"},"modified":"2026-10-29T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T11:15:22","slug":"tantramar-budget-talks-highlight-ongoing-amalgamation-growing-pains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/tantramar-budget-talks-highlight-ongoing-amalgamation-growing-pains\/","title":{"rendered":"Tantramar budget talks highlight ongoing amalgamation growing pains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Ward 2 Councillor Barry Hicks and Ward 3 Councillor Tori Weldon discuss how to address fairness in taxation at a special council meeting to hear a draft budget presentation on Oct. 26, 2026. | Photo: Mike Robar \/ CHMA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A vote on Tantramar’s municipal budget is fast approaching, but as council considers its options, ongoing fairness concerns over taxation since amalgamation continue to be a significant part of discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, councillors heard Treasurer Michael Beal present a draft of the municipality’s 2027 general budget, which prompted a conversation over how to address residents\u2014particularly those in the former local service districts (LSDs)\u2014who feel they are paying more in taxes for services they don’t receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since amalgamation, tax rates for the former LSDs have seen larger increases than the former towns of Sackville and Dorchester due to the process initiated by the provincial government, which sought to reach a sort of parity in taxation within amalgamated municipalities like Tantramar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end goal of this process was for former LSDs to pay 90 per cent of the rates paid in the former towns for shared services, which include things like recreation, culture, tourism and economic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Barry Hicks, who represents residents of the former LSDs in Ward 2, contends that 90 per cent is an unrealistic number, particularly as the largest expenditure in the municipality’s operating budget is engineering and public works, something the former LSDs pay $0.04115 per $100 of assessed value in taxes to the province to cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“\u200aYou got people in the LSDs, most of them people have never been in your civic centre. They don’t use your parks. A lot of the people in your LSDs are the older people that want to get out of town, so they don’t use the services, but they’re still paying on them, which they have to. I agree with that,” he said. “But they’re charging too much, in my opinion, and you poll the people in the LSD, they’ll tell you the same thing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen to the audio below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n