Villages back in control
It appears an issue that has angered villages across the province for the past several months has finally been put to bed.
Municipal Affairs Minister Mark Furey confirmed last week that recommendations from the municipal-provincial fiscal review surrounding villages have been dropped.
The recommendations suggested that no new villages be formed and that existing villages choose one of three options: become a town, join with an adjacent town or dissolve into the surrounding municipality.
The proposal drew ire from Kings County’s seven villages – and no wonder. The villages weren’t consulted prior to the report’s release last fall and were essentially blindsided.
By now, the province should know that forcing amalgamation on anyone doesn’t work. There is still a lot of bitterness in the Metro area and Cape Breton Regional Municipality over amalgamation. We’ve seen that it’s a process that works much better if it’s a homegrown initiative – just look at the Region of Queens, which is flourishing since its amalgamation, despite the loss of a major industry in the area in the form of the Bowater mill.
Excluding voices from the table is one way to ensure that you create bitterness. Furey’s announcement last week puts the destiny of each village back in their own hands, as New Minas Village Commission chairman Dave Chaulk pointed out.
Amalgamation isn’t a bad thing – Queens certainly proves that – but governments have to be willing to change and residents need to buy into it. No one wants to feel pushed into anything – and it takes time to make sure you do things right.
Perhaps, with the village issue now settled, the three towns and the county should revisit the discussion of a governance study for Kings County. Bring everyone to the table – the more voices the better – and look at every option available. Is amalgamation the answer? No one will know until a study is done. Perhaps it will recommend a better way of doing things without amalgamating.
Let’s face it - we all know the status quo won’t work long-term. Didn’t the Ivany Report point out that we need to change our attitudes and change the way we do things in order for Nova Scotia to flourish? What that report neglected to give us were the actual steps we need to take to make the change happen. Perhaps this is one of them.