Position 5
Bruce H. Fisher, Director, Policy & Planning, Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia
GFOA Activities
- GFOA Member for twenty years
- Served on GFOA’s Canadian Issues Committee (2004-2009 and 2012-2017) and was co-chair of its Standards Committee
- Past GFOA Annual Conference speaker and training presenter on Planning and Costing (San Antonio, 2011); The Halifax Experience with Municipal Tax Reform (Seattle, 2009); Building a Multi-year Financial Strategy (Denver, 2002)
Contributions to the Profession/Jurisdiction
- During career worked for all three levels of government: federal, provincial, and municipal
- Recommended budget process for senior management and Regional Council; led annual budget cycle including broad financial strategy, expenditure levels, debt targets, and municipal tax rates; managed relationships with and between departments on budget issues
- Moved current organization from a single-year focus to multi-year focus; created low-income support for taxpayers and significant support for city building initiatives including Regional Plan
- Drove an initiative to end the area tax rating of volunteer fire departments, which led to a stronger, more equitable rural fire service and helped bring the rural and urban parts of the community together
- Served as president of the Association of Municipal Administrators for Nova Scotia; during term worked towards more sustainable funding; strengthening the mandate to work closely with its sister organization, the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities and, updating its governance structure to provide stronger service
- Lectured at the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, on topics of Financial Administration and Budgeting; designed and taught courses for Masters of Public Administration program including Executive MPA and Distance Education MPA
- Participated in two international volunteer initiatives through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), one in the Ukraine and one in Sri Lanka
- Provided consulting for the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board on municipal restructurings; qualified as an expert witness
- Mentor to students
- MPA, CPA, CMA certifications
Goals for GFOA
GFOA should enable excellence in Public Finance for government through the following ways:
- Share information among members through conferences, best practices, research, webinars, and publications
- Offer training opportunities for members
- Provide services to Members including consulting
- Advocate on Public Finance issues
- Promote and encourage diversity
Education
Dalhousie University, Master of Public Administration
University of Kings College, Bachelor of Arts – Political Science