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Council candidates talk policing, amalgamation in Berwick
Two key points stood out at the meet the candidates forum in Berwick: there’s not much of an appetite for amalgamation in town, but there is widespread interest in seeing more police on the streets.
More than 60 spectators showed up to hear what town council contenders had to say at a Meet the Candidates Night hosted in the Lions Hall Oct. 5.
Candidates Jane Bustin, Barry Corbin, Chris Goddard, Adam Lutz, Anna Ashford-Morton, Rod Reeves, Mike Trinacty and Ty Walsh are vying for votes to claim one of six seats on council. Mayor Don Clarke is in by acclamation, returning to the top spot on council for another four-year term.
The candidates for town councillor positions were tasked with fielding prepared and impromptu questions at the Lions Hall event. The usual topics of business attraction and retention, economic growth, bylaw enforcement and recreation were all covered, but the most animated responses from the crowd came during discussions relating to policing and amalgamation.
One resident said it feels like the town has “part-time policing,” and the candidates were quick to list issues surrounding policing among their top priorities.
With a random draw determin- ing which candidates answered certain questions, incumbent councillor Ashford-Morton was the first to weigh in on amalgamation.
“I believe that Berwick has more to lose and less to gain by amalgamation. I do believe in shared services and I think the Valley in Nova Scotia is one of the best examples of sharing services now like we do with our fire departments… but I do not believe in amalgamation.”
Reeves, the town’s sitting deputy mayor, concurred.
“I’m so passionate about this town. We have a wonderful town here and I think it would be spoiled, to be honest, if we became part of the Municipality that is the County of Kings,” he said.
Reeves said he’s spoken to people in the regional municipalities of Cape Breton and Halifax who tell him they believe amalgamation “is just not working.”
“I’m afraid that if Berwick were to become part of the municipality we would lose the identity the we worked so hard to build up.”
Trinacty questioned why amalgamation has to involve a township dissolving into the neighbouring county.
“Why don’t we look at a different structure? We know by their own studies that they’ve done in Kings County that they’re a dysfunctional government… so why wouldn’t we dissolve Kings County and create four townships in this county… Kingston and area, Berwick and area, Kentville and area and Wolfville and area and have four greater towns… I think there’s different forms of regional or expanded government other than that traditional approach that towns dissolve,” he said to applause.
Corbin prefers a shared services approach to amalgamation.
“That’s the secret I think, we keep our unique town status, our unique town features and we co-operate on things… like transportation, waste management, policing, fire protection,” he said.
Bustin, another incumbent councillor, said she feels the Town of Berwick operates well as its own municipal unit.
“Not only do we share services… but we’ve also shown with the windmills that we don’t have to border on anybody,” said Bustin.
“We are sharing those with the Town of Antigonish and Mahone Bay… they formed a corporation to do the windmills. It shows that we can keep our identity, yet cooperate with other municipal- ities far afield for something really fantastic.”
Goddard, a candidate who frequently attends council meetings, said he’s yet to see figures that prove amalgamation leads to financial gains.
“Statistics have shown not only in Nova Scotia but across Canada that amalgamation has never saved the taxpayers any money,” Goddard said. “The increase in bureaucracy outweighs the decrease in your political leaders.”