GUYSBOROUGH — As one year ends and a new one begins, every soul in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough – young and old alike – is richer than they think. About $10,000 richer, to be exact.
That, at least, is the key takeaway of a 12-page report to MODG council, released to The Journal last week by outgoing Chief Administrative Officer Barry Carroll, which sets out more than $46 million in municipal investments now on the books.
“We are likely the richest municipality in the province on a per capita basis and likely one of the richest overall,” Carroll writes of the jurisdiction, which is home to about 4,600 residents.
Carroll, who retires at the end of the month after more than 16 years as MODG’s top bureaucrat, reports that the municipality is sitting on approximately $39 million in CIBC investment accounts and about $7 million in a CIBC three-year GIC. “That doesn’t include our current operating accounts,” he adds.
What’s more, he writes, the municipality’s only remaining long-term debt is tied directly to the Sable Wind project. “We have 10 years of payments completed on that project, with approximately five years left to pay,” Carroll notes. “We still have 10 years remaining on our power purchasing contract with Nova Scotia Power, so for the last five years of that contract, there will be no debt payments, which should allow our profits to be higher.
He adds that residents “enjoy, on average, among the lowest property assessments in the province, together with rates that allow for among the lowest municipal tax bills in the province.”
Carroll also includes a copy of the municipality’s most recent Financial Condition Index (FCI) – a provincial benchmark used to evaluate municipal fiscal health across Nova Scotia – which shows 12 green indicators for such metrics as liquidity, change in outstanding debt, reliance on government transfers and the three-year change in the local tax base.
With no yellow or red flags, the FCI places the municipality in what the province classifies as the lowest fiscal risk range, a condition that Carroll writes is “outstanding.”
Beyond the financial tables, the report spans the municipality’s industrial and commercial development file, with several pages of summaries outlining projects currently underway or proposed across MODG. The material does not introduce new financial commitments tied to those initiatives. Instead, it situates them as part of the municipality’s present economic environment.
These projects include Spaceport Nova Scotia, the Goose Harbour Lake Wind Farm, the Aulds Cove Wind Farm, the Melford International Terminal, Nova East Wind’s floating offshore project, the Black Point tidewater quarry, the Lazy Head tidewater quarry, the Goldboro gold mine, EverWind Fuels’ green hydrogen project, Bearhead Energy’s green hydrogen project, Nova Scotia’s offshore wind development and the Nova Sustainable Fuels eco-industrial park.
If all proceed, the report estimates total tax revenues to MODG could top $31 million a year. “Not all of these will reach a positive final investment decision, but there is a good chance that many of them will be successful,” Carroll writes.
In scope and range, the document amounts to one of the most comprehensive landscape portraits of MODG in recent memory, pulling together not only financial position and development exposure, but also infrastructure obligations and administrative capacity in a single filing.
Outlining municipal spending tied to core services and capital operations across all districts, Carroll notes ongoing investment in roads, facilities and equipment, along with annual operational support for volunteer fire departments and community organizations through municipal grant programs. Those grants, he reports, have ranged between roughly $500,000 and $750,000 a year.
The document also addresses personnel as the municipality enters the next administrative period, describing a fully staffed operation supported by internal promotions and professional development.
Carroll announced more than a year ago that he would retire by January 2026, following a phased transition. In last week’s Journal, Warden Paul Long said the recruitment process with executive search firm KBRS to select a successor “is moving forward” and remains on track.
“With new developments happening now and more right around the corner, the importance of planning for the next 10, 20 and 30 years is paramount if our communities are to prosper as they should,” Carroll writes. “I am one member of a team that has been comprised of many staff over the years, many elected officials and, of course, many volunteers from the communities who have helped get us to where we are today.”
