Three Nova Scotia municipalities are asking for provincial funding to help explore amalgamation, to make sure costs do not fall on local governments alone.

The Municipality of the District of Shelburne, Town of Shelburne, and Town of Lockeport formed a steering committee in late 2025 to examine the risks and benefits of amalgamation.

It is still early in the process and no decision has been made on whether the three municipalities will file an application to amalgamate through the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board.

“There’s so many questions, even from us, and our residents because it affects some things that are deep — identity, tax base, everything,” Lockeport Mayor Derek Amalfa, chair of the committee, said Thursday.

“These are very important decisions and we want to make sure that we’re gathering … as much information as we can, so that we can make the best decision that we can for our residents.”

Amalfa said that as Nova Scotia’s smallest municipality by population with some of the highest taxes in the province, it is important for Lockeport to examine whether services could be improved and delivered more sustainably as a larger municipality. The town had 476 residents as of 2021.

The other municipal leaders have echoed that reasoning, with the committee noting that all Nova Scotia municipalities are facing rising costs, infrastructure pressures, staffing challenges and complex regulations.

Municipal staff have told the committee that the various governance, technical and financial studies needed for any amalgamation process through the NSRAB add up to at least $550,000, but will likely be more.

In a March 5 letter, the committee asked Minister of Municipal Affairs John MacDonald to fund the full cost of “all studies and related requirements” needed to evaluate and complete the possible amalgamation.

“It’s no secret that we have three of the smaller municipal units in the province,” Amalfa said. “For our residents to bear the cost of those [studies], it would just be financially unrealistic.”

The letter said there is recent precedent for the move, with the provincial government spending about $1.5 million on studies and transition planning for the Windsor-West Hants consolidation that finished in 2020. Millions more are often provided by the province for infrastructure improvements.

“We’re certainly not asking for a lot here. We’re asking for the assistance that other municipalities and towns have received in the past,” Warden Penny Smith of the District of Shelburne said during the March 4 meeting.

Mayor Stan Jacklin of the Town of Shelburne said it is important for the town to gather the facts to share widely with all three communities before a vote to move ahead.

“It’s for the people, it’s not for any of us here. And it’s for the betterment of our jurisdictions,” Jacklin said during the meeting.

Amalfa said that all three municipal leaders had informal conversations with MacDonald when he visited their communities after taking on his new role last year. MacDonald’s advice had been to apply for funding through the municipal innovation program, Amalfa said.

That program was completely cut in this year’s provincial budget.

While that comment from the minister was “a bit discouraging” to hear, Amalfa said the committee always knew the MIP was not the right avenue for their needs anyway, and were not relying on the program.

Committee asks to meet with minister

The entire program was a $578,000 pot of money which all municipalities competed for, to get 50-75 per cent of their project covered. This would have left an unsustainable bill for the municipalities, Amalfa said.

In its March 5 letter, the committee asked to meet MacDonald in person to discuss the funding request and entire amalgamation process.

“We’ve got confidence in our government that they’re going to support us through this initiative,” Amalfa said.

As of Thursday, Amalfa said they had not received a response from the province.

“We hope to hear from them as soon as possible, because that kind of dictates where we go moving forward,” Amalfa said.

CBC asked the Municipal Affairs Department whether the province would agree to the committee’s request for funding, but it did not answer the question.

Department spokesperson Heather Fairbairn said in a statement Wednesday that the province works with all municipalities to ensure they have “viable and effective” operations.

“The decision to restructure is entirely that of elected councils,” Fairbairn said. “If a municipality is considering structural change, the department would be happy to discuss matters with them.”

Besides public meetings once a month where residents can ask questions and engage with the committee, the group’s website has a series of frequently asked questions.

That document includes “lessons” learned from the controversial Antigonish amalgamation process that was shelved in 2024, including avoiding the perception that decisions are already made, and explaining “why amalgamation is being explored, not just how.”

Amalfa said once the committee has gathered enough studies and facts, it will communicate that information to residents.

The committee has not decided on whether it would hold a plebiscite on amalgamation. That step is not legally binding, but would be another piece of information for the NSARB to consider.

The NSRAB’s role is to review evidence, hear from the public and parties involved, and decide whether amalgamation is in the public interest.

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