Antigonish consolidation bill introduced
Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr introduced legislation to consolidate the Town and County of Antigonish on Tuesday.
If passed, Bill 407 will see the Town of Antigonish become part of the surrounding County of Antigonish on Nov. 1.
It calls for the appointment of a “co-ordinator” by the government who will head a transition committee that will be composed of Antigonish Mayor Laurie Bouche, deputy mayor William Cormier, county Warden Owen Mccarron and deputy warden Hughie Stewart.
Under the legislation, the transition committee will take over the administration of both municipalities and will be responsible for the design of the new consolidated municipal government.
It will hold meetings, appoint an interim chief administrative officer and will have all the powers of an elected council.
The interim chief administrative officer will lead a review of existing employment at the two municipalities and the needs of the new consolidated government. Any positions deemed redundant can be eliminated — with the new municipality being responsible for severance, early retirement payments and/ or pension obligations.
In the case of duplication, existing employees of both municipalities will be asked to compete for positions in the new government.
The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board will be asked to establish the makeup of the new council and boundaries of its seats. A new council will be elected in October at the same time as municipal elections are held around Nova Scotia.
The transition committee will remain in control until Nov. 1, when it will hand control over to the newly elected council.
Antigonish town and county councils narrowly passed resolutions in October 2022 and again this spring asking for the special legislation to consolidate them.
“I wholeheartedly believe this is the right move for our community,” town Mayor Laurie Boucher said Tuesday.
“Looking ahead five, 10, 20 years, I am confident of the positive impact this will have on municipal service delivery, infrastructure investment, and enhancement of rural and urban areas of our community."
The process, which avoids a plebiscite, has been highly controversial.
A telephone poll commissioned by the group Let Antigonish Decide and performed by Main Street Research earlier this month found 75.8 per cent of residents of the town and county thought they should get a vote, up from 70.4 per cent in a poll commissioned by the group last March.
Just under 54 per cent said they would be “much less likely” to vote for their existing Progressive Conservative MLA’S Michelle Thompson and Greg Morrow as a result of the consolidation legislation.
Both opposition parties seized upon the dissent outside the legislature on Tuesday.
“We heard from people in Antigonish that they want a pleblicite, that’s what the municipal government act stipulates, that’s what the premier himself argued for and I think we will always fall on the side of democratic process,” said NDP Leader Claudia Chender.
For his part, Liberal Leader Zach Churchill took aim at comments made by Premier Tim Houston before he was in power regarding a failed attempt to amalgamate municipalities in Pictou County.
“I’m certainly pro modernizing municipal government, but I think we have to hold the premier’s feet to the fire here,” said Churchill, whose party was in power when Antigonish began talks with the Department of Municipal Affairs about consolidation.
“This is a premier, when I was minister of municipal affairs and we looked at amalgamation in his riding said, ‘The people need to have a voice. There needs to be a plebiscite’.”