Service Review - Benchmark Towns

To help understand the current ‘health’ of the town, it is beneficial to see how Shelburne compares to similar size towns in Nova Scotia. We’ve called these the benchmark towns. The benchmark towns are: Berwick, Digby, Middleton and Stewiacke.
Shelburne compares well to the benchmark towns, being fairly middle of the road for most service levels and costs. Research did identify that Shelburne has the highest recreation cost of any of the bench-mark communities.
Of concern is that although Shelburne’s dropping population is the biggest risk to the Town, Shelburne has no planning and development service and compared to the benchmark towns, is the only town without an economic development function. This situation needs to be addressed.