Maps outline potential Clare municipal boundaries
Second phase of boundary review process now complete
About 30 residents turned out to a Feb. 6 public meeting in the Municipality of Clare’s boundary review process.
Clare is undergoing this process for the third time in four years after the Clare Civic Association argued the municipality had not properly consulted the public in previous reviews. The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board agreed.
Members of the civic association have been advocating for reduction of councillors from eight to five, citing the small geographic size of the municipality and overall council effectiveness.
A recent survey conducted by Stantec, the consulting agency hired by the municipality to conduct the current boundary review process, demonstrated that the majority of survey respondents in Clare prefer the status quo, and want the council to remain at eight members.
The survey results were released at a Jan. 16 public meeting. More than 500 residents completed the survey and 424 residents responded to the main question regarding council size – 47 per cent of the 424 respondents favoured the current council size, while 21.7 per cent favoured a council size of five members. Overall, 55.4 per cent of survey respondents favoured an eightmember council or even larger, while 44.6 per cent of respondents favoured seven or fewer.
Stantec senior planner John Heseltine said his agency decided to look at both scenarios.
“Clare has applied twice in the recent past to have its council size confirmed and there have been issues with that application in both cases, so my feeling was it would be best to look at both scenarios from what I see as the two John Heseltine of Stantec, the consulting agency hired by the municipality to conduct the current boundary review process. leading choices,” he said.
MAPS DISPLAYED
Maps were displayed showing existing boundaries in Clare, along with two newly created maps, one showing eight newly outlined districts, another showing five.
Heseltine said the leading criteria with the UARB is voter parity. He said UARB rules insist that the number of eligible voters in each district be within plus or minus 10 per cent of the average voters across the municipality, unless you can provide very good reasons for not doing so. The current divisions in Clare have two districts with a more than 12 per cent difference and another with a 17 per cent difference, a fact that led Heseltine and his team to also redefine the boundaries for the current eight council members.
Other criteria included communities of interest, a reasonable land size and a reasonable population that could be managed by the elected representative.
Two other criteria that Heseltine applies to the boundary process are contiguity of the districts – areas and communities that are not broken up – and strong recogniz- able boundaries like main highways, lakes or rivers.
His team used the province’s GIS mapping system that attaches each plot of land to a community name. The process then became a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
“We noted that Weaver Settlement is currently split between district 1 and 2 – so we decided to include all of Weaver Settlement into district 1,” Heseltine said, offering several other examples of changes.
“We tried to be reasonably conservative – the goal wasn’t to unnecessarily change things… you can see some things that have changed in population patterns so that justifies some of our changes, but we didn’t go out of our way to change things for their own sake in the eight-district scenario,” he said.
His team’s eight-district map design has one district with more than 10 per cent plus or minus the average – but the difference is less than one per cent. The five-district map proved a bit more challenging.
“The main issue was we had to try and get communities together and make use of the 101 as a boundary for some of the districts because it is a good, clear boundary,” Heseltine Clare Civic Association chairperson Gerard Theriault spoke at the Feb. 6 meeting. said.
About the five-district map, Heseltine pointed out it divided the more populous coastline from the more rural, less populated areas, in some cases dividing the associated village from its rural counterpart. That being said, Heseltine said he was certain the UARB would find either choice acceptable.
CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Eight members of the Clare Civic Association turned out Feb. 6 to once again urge council to consider reducing its numbers.
Association chairperson Gerard Theriault was pleased to see the two scenarios represented, but also spoke to Clare council’s structure and committee participation. He said in the past the municipality operated by having many committees, chaired by various council members, however under a new system standing committees were replaced by a committee of the whole.
“Our council – along with many municipalities in Nova Scotia – decided to adopt this (committee of the whole council) – CAO structure and subsequently reduced the number of standing committees while increasing the number of administrative staff. Clare presently has five standing committees, down from about 22 committees.”
Theriault named committees that he believed had been eliminated as another reason council could be reduced.
“Councillors now have fewer committee meetings to attend and a larger professional staff to advise them on various issues, which enables them to be fewer in number,” he said.
He stated an odd number of council members would offer more effective governance because the warden could cast a vote on behalf of his constituents instead of only serving as a tie-breaker. He repeated previous arguments regarding saving money, creating efficiencies and the size and population of the area in correlation with the number of councillors.
“There are 13 small towns and municipal districts in Nova Scotia operating with five councillors and one of them has a much larger population and territory (Richmond) than Clare. Richmond, Digby and Barrington have only five councillors and are managing well and providing good governance to their citizens,” Theriault said.
Clare Civic Association member Kristanne Chandler asked Heseltine several questions, including about the 10 per cent difference between the 55.4 per cent of survey respondents who preferred eight or more councillors and the 44.6 per cent who preferred seven or fewer, and if that difference was significant in any way.
Heseltine responded: “I guess it’s pretty average – it’s a healthy difference. Several other surveys we’ve done favoured council reduction, so if anything, this one is a little unusual in that the outcome favoured the status quo.”
After the meeting Theriault said, “We did the best we could with our association. It looks like it may go to eight but that’s what the public has stated so we can’t argue with that.”
He said they would now await the UARB hearing and decision.