COVER STORY: The cash-crunch woes of rural municipalities

Rural councils had to reinvent themselves after the massive municipal and property tax reforms of the 1990s. Today, they are still struggling to cope with rising service costs and less available cash to pay them, and are looking to Queen’s Park for help

by MARY BAXTER

Last September, in Middlesex County’s Municipality of Thames Centre, there erupted a dispute about council’s decision to explore centralizing its road works in one main garage.

Better Farming - December 2011