Patterson presents a plan to make a plan
Borough President Candidate Roy Patterson met with members of the local media at the L’originale restaurant on Thursday morning to present his plans for how to separate Lennoxville from Sherbrooke. Arguing that all of the community’s most significant issues stem from being a small, low priority area in the greater whole of Sherbrooke, Patterson has committed to a plan to make a plan for how Lennoxville could go back to being its own municipality fifteen years after being merged with its largest neighbour.
“We are lost in the city,” Patterson said, arguing that the community was shortchanged by unreasonable requirements in the 2004 demerger referendum and suggesting that Lennoxville could manage just fine on its own. He added to that his concern that Lennoxville would inevitably be merged with another borough if someone doesn’t take steps to prevent it.
Citing “many towns” of about Polling stations will be open across the province from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. for citizens eligible to vote in the municipal elections this Sunday, Nov.5.
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Lennoxville’s size in the province, the candidate said that he sees no reason that the borough couldn’t gradually make its way back to being a separate village with the right support by becoming a “twin city” with a neighbouring community like Waterville, Cookshire-eaton, or Hatley in the short term. In that case, rather than be 5000 people in a sea of 160,000, the scales would be more evenly balanced and both smaller municipalities could benefit from a new connection. Once in that position, the question of independence could be raised again after a few years.
“My job, over the next four years, is to make us as attractive a partner as possible,” Patterson said, explaining that he has not brought up the idea of a merger with any of the neighbouring municipalities yet. Asked how he would convince the Sherbrooke City Council to approve the complicated task of demerging Lennoxville, the candidate said that he didn’t think that the matter was Sherbrooke’s decision and argued that with the support of a neighbouring municipality he would take the matter straight to the provincial government. Although asked why he needs to be a member of the Sherbrooke council in order to solicit that support, Patterson didn’t answer the question. Instead he talked about how he believes a successful separation of Lennoxville would open the door for other districts within the City of Sherbrooke to act on their own hidden desires to leave.
Patterson proved unprepared for questions relating to how the complex process of disentangling the borough from Sherbrooke would take place. Although he generally suggested that a newly independent Lennoxville could subcontract missing services from Sherbrooke, he seemed uncertain about the costs involved and offered no sense of how he would rally support for his independence movement. He said that he would like to see Lennoxville continue to take advantage of Sherbrooke police and public transit services, but offered no clear decision on fire services when asked to choose between the volunteer fire department and the new station Sherbrooke is planning to build in the borough. He expressed surprise at the fact that Lennoxville is connected to Sherbrooke’s water and sewage system and, when asked how an independent Lennoxville would handle its integrated utilities, said that “there is water everywhere.”
“I’m not the expert,” Patterson said, arguing that he will be able to find the people, time, and resources to make a detailed demerger plan after being elected.