Legal bills for Annapolis County top $1M for 2 disputes over past 3 years

The Municipality of the County of Annapolis has spent more than a million dollars on two legal disputes over the past three years.

The acting chief administrative officer, Louis Coutinho, provided the totals at a Wednesday council meeting. The bills relate to legal work on an internet project ($635,950) and waste collection ($379,795)

"For those two initiatives alone, we are already over a million dollars ($1,015,925)," said Coutinho.

In 2018, the municipality hired Mainland Telecom to provide rural internet access to the Nova Scotia county. By October 2019, Annapolis County had ended its contract with Mainland and signed a new one with Eagle Telecom.

Deputy Warden Michael Gunn wondered why the legal bill for the internet file was so high.

"What was that actually for? Was that for creating that termination of convenience contract?" he said.

Coutinho explained it was "for everything," including litigation.

"This is a very high-level look, I haven't broken it down yet," said Coutinho.

Waste dispute

Annapolis County also got into a budget dispute with the regional waste authority in 2018. The municipality ended up buying its own compost bins and setting up a separate transfer station in West Paradise. There is an ongoing lawsuit with Valley Waste that hasn't been resolved.

In December, the newly elected council fired the chief administrator officer, John Ferguson, and its solicitor, Bruce Gillis.

At the end of January, county councillors decided to contact Valley Waste to try to negotiate a new agreement.

Coun. Wendy Sheridan thanked staff for finally providing county council with the total bill for legal fees.

"We've been asking for quite some time to get these figures," said Sheridan. "I know it wasn't easy, and finally we have them."