A Sign of the Times

The Dissolution of the Town of Canso

The Town of Canso is situated at the most north-easterly point of Mainland Nova Scotia. Over 400 years old, the town has played a large role in the development of Nova Scotia from the French Colonial period right up to Canadian Confederation. It was incorporated as an official town in 1901, and has been a tight-knit and friendly seaside community for its entire existence. However, the loss of the fisheries in recent years coupled with the current global economic conditions has made it a tough go for the self-governing town leading to the decision to dissolve the town into the Municipality of the District of Guysborough this coming Canada Day (1st July) by the Nova Scotia Utility & Review Board. Similar economic conditions plagued the Town of Inverness in the 1960’s. The Town of Inverness dissolved and in 1969 became part of the Municipality of the County of Inverness. The situation in Canso is fiscally unsustainable, and therefore the dissolution is the only way in which the services that the town currently offers can be maintained at an adequate level. Incorporated in 1901, the town was a major population centre inside a much more populous Guysborough County which had a population of about 40,000. However, over 100 years later, things are drastically different. Today, the District of Guysborough (which is absorbing Canso) has a population of about 8,000 people, and falling. “The financial model…that towns follow is proving to be difficult to maintain for small communities…not dissimilar to the amalgamation in Cape Breton (County) that occurred a number of years ago to create the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, when the small towns like Dominion, even big towns like Glace Bay, were amalgamated…in this instance, the Town of Canso, which is the civic corporation, applied to surrender its incorporation (as a town and become an unincorporated community within the District of Guysborough).” explains Warden Lloyd Hines of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough. He jokingly adds that, in light of the recent negative census results, on “July 1st (the day of the towns dissolution) the Municipality of the District of Guysborough is going to become the fastest growing municipality in Canada.” The situation in which the town finds itself is not an easy one to rectify. With a dropping, aging population and a very small tax base with little economic prospect, the town had little choice in how to move forward. The town has an aging infrastructure that will need to be replaced in the coming years (upwards of four million dollars worth) and nowhere near enough funds with which to do this; therefore, the town was no longer able to meet its mandate to offer services. In response, the town council voted to surrender its civic incorporation and applied to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board for dissolution. The Board, after consultation with the town, the people of Canso, and the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, approved the dissolution and set the 1st of July 2012 as the date on which it will take place. This comes exactly 16 years and 11 months after the province’s first major round of dissolutions and amalgamation, in Cape Breton County, which occurred on the 1st of August 1995. In Part Two: The Solution, the dissolution and other alternatives that were available to the town will be discussed along with the solution decided on and the course of action t