After a career spanning nearly 30 years in municipal administration, Greg Herrett has announced he is retiring as the chief administrative officer with the Municipality of Cumberland effective Sept. 30, 2026.
He’ll be staying on with the municipality in an advisory role until Dec. 31, 2026, to assist with the transition to the new CAO.
Herrett made the announcement during a special meeting of Cumberland municipal council on Monday, March 30, 2026.
“There’s been lots of challenges but there’s also been a lot of accomplishments we’ve completed together with this council and the last one. We’ve done a lot of work together and I’m proud of that work and the people I work with,” Herrett told council. “Even though it will be tough to leave I’m looking forward to what’s next.”
Municipality of Mayor Rod Gilroy thanked Herrett for his contribution to the municipality since he arrived in the position five years ago.
“The list of accomplishments is a mile long,” the mayor said. “None of us would be sitting here and we would not have enjoyed the success we’ve had if not for everything you’ve done.”
After working in the private sector, Herrett, a Chartered Professional Accountant, joined the Town of Amherst as the director of Corporate Services in December 1997 and became the town’s chief administrative officer in August 2005. In April 2021 he became CAO of the Municipality of Cumberland. He is a past president of the Association of Municipal Administrators of Nova Scotia and served terms on the Boards of both the NS Property Valuation Services Corporation and the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (now NSFM).
During his tenure with the Municipality, with the support of Council and staff, he led a complete overhaul of its organizational structure to address gaps and redundancies leftover from two municipal dissolutions a decade ago. He oversaw a detailed review of the fire service and the implementation of the “hub” model of the fire service. Most recently, under his leadership, the Municipality undertook a detailed review of the development, planning & permitting function with a report & recommendations due later this spring.
A number of major capital projects were completed during his time including construction of a new library in Pugwash, the Junction Road reconstruction and new fire hall in Springhill, with planning now underway for both a new library in Parrsboro and new fire hall in River Hebert.
Herrett, along with Amherst CAO Jason MacDonald, successfully negotiated a landmark inter-municipal agreement between the Municipality and the Town of Amherst, which enabled the development of a major housing project in an area on the boundary between the Town and County, in return for access to hundreds of connections to Amherst’s sewer infrastructure for county properties in an area just outside the town.