Raven looks to bring spirit of collaborative leadership to Kings, N.S., mayor role

DELHAVEN, N.S. — A former Kings County councillor says her municipal and professional experience would serve citizens well if she is elected mayor, especially when it comes to managing budgets.

Pauline Raven has announced she is running for mayor in the County of Kings in the October municipal election. She served on Kings County council from 2012 to 2020 and said she’s ready to serve again, this time as mayor. She hopes to jell quickly with councillors if elected and spread a hard-working ethic across all districts.

“I want them to lead with me and I want to set an agenda that we can accomplish, and I want to hear what they want to accomplish in their four years on council too,” Raven said.

She also wants to pull in expertise from the community, populating committees with people who are deeply committed to capitalize on their skills while working toward municipal goals.

Raven said perhaps the biggest issue facing the County of Kings is motivational. She thinks it has everything it needs to be better and make progress on many fronts.

She believes a much deeper dive should be taken into the budget to examine how money is being spent and ensure the municipality is getting good value. Raven said she has lobbied for a zero-based budgeting exercise, but to no avail.

“If I were leading council, I would be trying to get all the other councillors on board with that kind of a very practical exercise,” she said.

Raven said this probably couldn’t be done in the first year and she isn’t suggesting slashing the budget. However, there is a lot of money in the County of Kings. It’s time to look at affordability issues and ensure the municipality is in the best position possible so that extra tax burden isn’t being placed on citizens.

She said the municipality is now considering a deed transfer tax. She would at least like to see an exemption for first-time home buyers, but she doesn’t think any new tax should be implemented until the budget has been thoroughly examined.

Raven has run large community-based projects and served as the executive director of the Halifax YWCA and the Community Action Program for Children in Kings-Hants. This has given her a lot of experience managing budgets and staff.

“I’m pretty good at taking dollars and stretching them by looking for other contributors and partners, and I think that would work, and very well, with our federal and provincial partners at the municipal level,” Raven said.