What’s so funny?
MLA wants apology over cartoon used in municipal modernization presentation that he says insults Pictou County
A January presentation by the provincial government on municipal modernization that featured a 2016 political cartoon from The Chronicle Herald has raised the ire of some in Pictou County.
The cartoon was originally published during the heat of the amalgamation debate in Pictou County and features castles representing each of the towns with moats around them and a text bubble above New Glasgow’s castle saying “We’re considering a limited free-trade agreement with Stellarton.”
In the context of the PowerPoint presentation on municipal modernization the cartoon was labelled as an example of “The Problem.”
Pictou East MLA Tim Houston took Minister of Municipal Affairs Derek Mombourquette to task over it during question period in the Legislature on Tuesday.
“This government is obsessed with amalgamation. First it was the Health Authority, then it was the school boards, and now they’re pushing the concept of municipal modernization,” he said.
“The department participated in a Jan. 31 presentation on amalgamation that included an offensive cartoon that depicted Pictou County as backwards and ‘the problem.’ Now the presenter saw the error they made and changed the cartoon for subsequent versions of the presentation, but their opinion was made quite clear, Mr. Speaker.”
Houston then asked Mombourquette to apologize for his department’s involvement in the presentation and what he described as a “thinly veiled insult to the municipal leaders and residents of Pictou County.”
Mombourquette said “the rationale for the cartoon being used in the presentation at the time was to tell the story about the challenges that municipal governments face and that amalgamation isn’t always the answer.”
He said municipal modernization “is about moving forward and encouraging municipalities to break down those traditional barriers and talk to one another, to plan with one another, to organize with one another” and not about amalgamation.
Pressed again for an apology by Houston, Mombourquette said that correspondence has actually already been sent by his department to UNSM and the municipal administrators and the mayors of the Pictou County municipalities and the CAOs outlining that they too understood their concerns that came forward with regard to that cartoon.
He said the Liberal government will not be forcing amalgamation on any municipalities.
Speaking to The News about the issue, Houston called it unfortunate that the cartoon was used in the context it was.
“It’s something we all want to move past,” he said.
Stellarton councillor Bryan Knight, who had been a vocal opponent of amalgamation, said he found the use of the cartoon in the presentation in poor taste particularly in the context of saying that Pictou County’s municipalities were somehow “The Problem.”
He said that people in Pictou County have been trying to mend differences since the amalgamation debate.
“This government should be trying to work with us.”