COVID-19 led to many changes at workplace across the Quad Counties- and the world.
One of those changes is still in place in the Municipality of the District of Guysborough- four-day work weeks.
Vernon Pitts, Guysborough’s warden, say municipal employees started a four-day rotation in June; workers were divided into two teams, one working Monday-to-Thursday, while the other worked Tuesday-to-Friday.
In a year-end interview with The Hawk, Pitts says it’s been working very well.
“A lot of different countries, as well as organizations, (are) looking at it,” he says. “It went exceptionally well- in all actuality, we end up getting actually more bang for our buck when it comes to employable hours.”
Pitts says they’ll re-evaluate things during their strategic planning sessions in January, which will be the first for the two new faces who joined their council in 2020.
Paul Long was acclaimed in District 1 when Miles MacDonald, the incumbent councillor, didn’t re-offer, and no other candidates came forward; Mary Germaine Desmond defeated incumbent Sheila Pelly in District 2.
Pitts tells The Hawk Long and Desmond have hit the ground running.
“They’re firmly engaged, they have a lot of experience working with the various community organizations- working with council, that’s just going to be a larger organization,” he says. “I’m looking forward, as well as council is looking forward, to the input they’re going to bring to our council.”
Pitts was re-elected warden by his fellow councillors during an October swearing-in ceremony; Janet Peitzsche replaced Pelly as deputy warden.
He says the decommissioning of the Sable offshore energy project also took place in 2020, and the Sable loss is still a massive hit to their bottom line.
“They were a major taxpayer in our municipality,” he says. “The last couple of years, our municipality has seen a hit- a negative hit- in regards to taxation- approximately $3 million.”
Pitts says they’ll get through it- there are a number of major projects on the horizon.
He says Goldboro LNG, the Melford Atlantic Gateway terminal project, Anaconda Mining in Goldboro and Maritime Launch Services in Canso are all reasons for optimism in 2021 and beyond.
The full year-end interview can be found below.
