During last night’s council meeting, a motion was made to send a letter to Colchester County Mayor Bob Taylor with the town’s concerns.
“We’re not unhappy with what CoRDA (Colchester Regional Development Association) is doing, we just don’t really know what they are doing for us,” said Mayor Wendy Robinson, who told councillors she recently met with Taylor, Truro Mayor Bill Mills and Millbrook Chief Bob Gloade. “We’re still in talks with them, but we’re fairly small players in the game.”
Economic and Rural Development and Tourism Minister Percy Paris announced in December that the province intends to replace Nova Scotia’s 12 regional development agencies (RDAs) with six Regional Enterprise Networks (RENs) in an effort to better promote economic development across the province, after the federal government said it was cutting ACOA funding to RDAs.
The Colchester Regional Development Agency (CoRDA) is included among the RDAs to be affected by the plan.
At last week’s Colchester council meeting, there was discussion about the possibility of forming a separate regional development agency with the towns of Stewiacke, Truro and the Millbrook First Nation.
In the letter the town of Stewiacke is sending to Taylor, Robinson said council values “all the current services provided to the town by CoRDA.”
“In particular the social side of development; such as event promotion and coordination.”
The letter also states the current model could and should be reviewed and restructured if necessary “to meet the needs of the three municipal units and that of the Millbrook First Nation.”
The mayor said the council needs more information to have a clear indication of what Regional Enterprise Networks would look like and the services available compared to what the current model offers.
“As well, council has concerns about the overall impact, including financial, that this process will have on the town and possible future development of the town.”
rtetanish@trurodaily.com
