Media Releases

Municipal Awareness Week 2020

Nov. 15-22, 2020, is Municipal Awareness Week in the Town of Amherst. The article below is the fourth of four outlining the role of some of the town’s departments.

The Corporate Services Department is a diversified group that provides high quality stewardship, reporting and services to the town’s departments, to external clients and stakeholders and to the citizens of Amherst.

“I instantly became part of the team that takes pride in serving the public and does such a great job tackling challenges and situations, and planning and delivering services no matter what issues arise,” Michael Hunter, the town’s newly appointed chief financial officer, said.

The people in this department are the behind-the-scenes staff who ensure events happen, reports get completed, the finances of the town are in order, the systems and tools work for staff, people get paid, businesses are heard and supported, and the community gets healthier in all aspects. 

These are the people who greet you with a smile when you enter town hall, receive payments on all town accounts, deal with enquiries, manage customer service complaints and provide accounting and clerical support to other town departments.

Corporate Services is responsible for creating and managing the operating and capital budgets for the Amherst Water Utility and the Town of Amherst. It provides quarterly financial reports, year-end financial statements and other reports and information to the town’s audit committee with the recommendation that the committee send the reports to town council for approval.

This group also ensures the reporting requirements for the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board and the Province of Nova Scotia are met.

In addition, this division is responsible for completing the accounting for the Cumberland Business Connector and for ensuring miscellaneous revenue billing, interim and final tax bills and water/sewer bills are calculated and issued. They also manage the collections and tax sale processes.

This group provides payroll and benefit administration services to all the town departments and plays a pivotal role in hiring staff and ensuring a smooth transition for staff who leave or retire.