ARICHAT - A busy night at Richmond Municipal Council's latest Committee of the Whole meeting included lengthy discussions on the appropriateness of vaccination mandates for municipal employees and the proper means of holding council meetings within the fourth wave of COVID-19. 

The meeting in Arichat, which took place two weeks after Nova Scotia moved to the fifth and final phase of its official pandemic reopening strategy, was the first public in-person council meeting since April. While most councillors confessed to having some difficulties using the technology required for virtual council sessions, they agreed that such a course would be acceptable should the province's current COVID-19 case count rise again. For the time being, however, public meetings will continue in the Richmond Municipal Building. 

As well, Richmond's Policy and By-Law Committee will review the concept of having all municipal employees vaccinated. Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Don Marchand warned that the process may not be as straightforward as many people might expect. As an example, he noted that workers at the municipally-run Richmond Arena are not required to be fully vaccinated under the current Nova Scotia pandemic rules, while those working at the municipal water utilities are expected to have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccination before carrying out their duties. 

The meeting also included a delegation from the Property Valuation Services Corporation (PVSC), which conducted an independent audit of Richmond County properties in June following a complaint from Deputy Warden Michael Diggdon that several property owners had not paid taxes to the municipality over a span of 50 years. While Diggdon held to this position at the October 11 Committee of the Whole meeting, PVSC senior valuation manager Lloyd MacLeod insisted that the review turned up "no glaring issue of lost tax revenue."

Other topics discussed at the meeting included Richmond's financial participation in a study to be carried out by the Cape Breton Partnership about overhauling the Port Hastings Rotary, a review of a former school building in Evanston that could be used to address local housing issues and might even play a role in physician recruitment strategies, new provincial provisions for the upgrade of J-class roads in rural areas, and the possibility that the municipality's various departments and committees could provide regular reports to public council meetings in the near future.