‘We’re willing to partner’
CBRM council holds first official council meeting in Eskasoni
Areas where the two governments can collaborate were among the topics discussed as the Cape Breton Regional Municipal council held its first official council meeting in the First Nations community of Eskasoni Tuesday.
Eskasoni has its own band council but is also a part of the CBRM, as is the First Nations community of Membertou. The Eskasoni area is represented on municipal council by Dist. 3 Coun. Esmond (Blue) Marshall.
The CBRM does have service arrangements with Membertou to provide items such as policing, fire protection and utilities, but doesn’t have a similar deal with Eskasoni.
“When it comes to Eskasoni, we’ve partnered on emergency management but there is no cost-sharing arrangements,” Clarke said.
“We’re willing to partner,” Eskasoni Chief Leroy Denny said. “We appreciate working with CBRM and making things happen.”
Denny noted among the initiatives they are working with the CBRM on is port development. The band is also continuing to work to address child poverty and housing challenges, he added.
Eskasoni is looking at developing a multi-purpose field at its powwow grounds, as it will host the Mi’kmaq Summer Games next year. Denny said they will be looking to potential corporate sponsors for support in making it a reality, adding the field could be used by teams from outside Eskasoni as well. Clarke said CBRM parks and grounds could end up handling project management for that proposal. He noted staff has the expertise to perform functions like design, oversight and working with contractors.
“We will provide in-kind support from the municipality and help be a partner in working that forward,” Clarke said.
Active living and sports are an important focus for the community, Denny said, noting there are currently 100 young people playing football in Eskasoni and they practise at a ballfield.
Cape Breton Transit is also looking at a pilot project to provide service to Eskasoni.
In recent years, the two band councils and the municipal council have held joint meetings to discuss areas where they can work together.
Clarke said they have also provided other in-kind services in response to issues like severe flooding.
“When the Thanksgiving Day flood occurred, any of the followup to that, we had generators on standby, we
had sump pumps, we had resources available that was just there not on the basis
of this is the cost of it, it was just there because we’re neighbouring communities,” Clarke said.