Antigonish consolidation not going ahead
The consolidation of Antigonish town and county has been put on ice by the Nova Scotia government.
On Thursday, Municipal Affairs Minister John Lohr announced the province would not be moving forward with special legislation to dissolve the town and merge it with the surrounding county.
“While both town and county municipal officials did vote in favour of consolidation, we simply cannot ignore the voices of the residents,” Lohr said Thursday afternoon.
“Therefore, after careful consideration of what we have heard, the bill to consolidate the town and county of Antigonish will not be proceeding.”
Lohr recognized there are sore feelings on both sides.
“I understand that this will be very disappointing for the people in support of consolidation. I want to thank the mayor and warden of the town and county of Antigonish and the residents both in support and opposition of this process for their commitment to their communities.”
Lohr said there was no broad base support in the community for the merger.
The province could have called a plebiscite under the Municipal Governance Act. Lohr didn’t say why there wasn’t a plebiscite in the first place but said the government would certainly be looking at the process “and wanting to use that process in the future.”
Thursday’s announcement means that the municipal elections in October will go ahead unchanged.
The move was somewhat surprising. It comes two days after Premier Tim Houston met with hundreds of area residents opposed to consolidation at a public meeting in Heatherton. At that meeting, Houston said it wasn’t for him to overrule the votes by the town and county councils to consolidate.
Lohr said it was the meeting that changed his and the premier’s mind.
Those two councils narrowly voted twice to consolidate, despite significant opposition from residents united under the banner Let Antigonish Decide. That group advocated for a plebiscite on consolidation.
Two polls by Mainstreet Research commissioned by the group each found more than 70 per cent of residents thought the issue should go to a vote.
The group held its own public meetings, presented their concerns at the Law Amendments Committee hearings for the consolidation bill and launched legal challenges against the councils’ attempt to seek consolidation without a plebiscite.
“It’s been a lot of hard work,” said Colleen Morrow, an organizer with Let Antigonish Decide, after hearing the consolidation bill won’t be going forward.
“We thank the premier for coming to Heatherton and listening to the people. And thank you to all the people who supported Let Antigonish Decide.”
In response to the news, Antigonish Mayor Laurie Boucher and county Warden Owen Mccarron released a joint statement.
“We are extremely disappointed and disheartened,” they said.
“We followed the process that was laid out for us and we trusted the Houston government to respect the decisions of our respective councils and pass the special legislation. We firmly believe the people of Antigonish would have been better served under the leadership of one municipal unit.”
The municipal leaders said, while not merging, they will co-operate.
“We are committed to moving forward together as partners to collaborate on projects and initiatives that will mutually benefit our community.”
NDP leader Claudia Chender said putting the amalgamation on hold is a good decision but shouldn’t have been needed.
“If they’re going to contemplate amalgamation they have to do it right and it needs to be a democratic process,” said Chender.
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill called the move another example of the government having to backtrack on a decision because they don’t want to do their homework.
“This is a government that could have consulted with this community over the last two years, they were invited to and refused to until the 11th hour.”