At the latest Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting, staff were available to answer councillors’ questions after having filed reports for each of their departments. Some of the items discussed:

- Over the last year, the financial department has done much work on the maintenance and repair of municipal water and sewer treatment facilities, something that will continue in the new year.

- Speaking to council, Director of Finance Tanya Tibbo recommended that interest be written off for hospitals owned by the Nova Scotia Health Authority. The provincial entity has owed money for area rights and wastewater services over the last two years. The taxes recently paid but there are still outstanding interest fees. A representative of the NSHA told Tibbo that they don’t pay interest as per provincial policy. So, the municipal Director of Finance recommends that the $12,289.68 owed be written off for the hospitals. Council officially recommended that the interest be written off.

- Special Projects Facilitator Melanie Beaton said that municipal staff, with the help of a consultant, are putting together an application for the federal Universal Broadband Fund, which is open to both broadband and mobile service. The deadline for applications is February 15, 2021.

- Erin Gillis, from Operations and Occupational Health and Safety, answered questions about garbage disposal. Deputy Warden Bonny MacIsaac wanted to know about the two loads of contaminated recycling material that are currently at the Strathmore facility. Gillis said that blue bags carrying recyclables were contaminated with oil due to a leakage in the pickup truck, which carries garbage in one section and recyclables in the other. “Once we get oil of any kind on our blue bags, we can’t run on our recycling line because it will contaminate everything and then our product is not sellable,” she said. “So, when we do have contaminated loads, we have to go through Nova Scotia Environment to get approval to landfill. So, right now, it’s kind of hanging out in a roll-off bin waiting for approval.”

Gillis also mentioned that garbage being placed together with recyclables was a general concern for the county. 

- Donna MacDonald from Department of Tourism and Culture talked about the Participaper magazine, which will be coming out in two weeks and will contain a schedule for winter events. Because of COVID-19, there are fewer applications to the Winteractive program, which provides funding to organizations that organize winter events.

- MacDonald said that the Sounds of the Season campaign on Facebook has “been getting a lot of traction. It’s twofold, it’s to support our local musicians and also to pull at the heartstrings for those who can’t be home.”