Aggravating annexation
Public anti-annexation meeting draws about 200; concerns raised about taxes and services
Colleen MacQuarrie doesn’t think annexation is the right fit for Mount Tryon or other areas in the Borden Carleton Fire District.
“We are currently an unincorporated area. We have a 100-acre organic farm of beef cattle. I just don’t see how it makes sense move a farm into a municipality,” said MacQuarrie.
“It’s a very frustrating situation. It feels forced and like it came out of the blue. Obviously it’s happened in other areas, but I guess we never thought it would come to our area.” Scott Cutcliffe
She was one of more than 200 people who attended the public meeting held at the Al- bany Community Centre on Sunday night to protest the town of Borden-Carleton’s proposed bid for annexing areas like Mount Tryon, Cape Traverse, Seven Mile Bay and Albany.
Throughout the meeting, no one could definitively say what the benefit of joining Borden-Carleton would be, she said.
“It feels like the province is leaning toward building one big structure and then downloading services onto each municipality and as those services are sent down the line, I fear the areas on the outskirts are going to get the short end of the stick.”
During the meeting, MacQuarrie took the microphone to ask Mayor Dean Sexton of Borden-Carleton what he thought the benefit was “besides increased tax rates and more headaches” for rural Islanders in the area.
Sexton replied land-use planning would be the biggest benefit and added he doesn’t foresee a large tax jump.
“You would pay taxes for the services you get,” explained Sexton.
Bruce MacDougall, president of the P.E.I. Federation of Municipalities, as well as MLA Jamie Fox and Department of Communities, Land and Environment acting director Christine MacKinnon were also on the panel Sunday.
In September, Borden-Carleton town council sent out a letter to the residents of the surrounding area in the fire district as well as the area in Albany not serviced by the Borden-Carleton Fire Department, proposing annexation.
Scott Cutcliffe thinks the town’s reason for annexation is self-preservation.
“It’s a very frustrating situation. It feels forced and like it came out of the blue. Obviously it’s happened in other areas, but I guess we never thought it would come to our area.
“For them to say we would have enhanced police services or that we use their amenities does not justify it and does not justify a possible tax increase of about 12 to 18 cents.”
Cutcliffe is concerned that the people making the decisions are not the ones in the areas facing annexation. But Sexton doesn’t see it as a problem.
“Right now it is proposed. It is all hypothetical. If this were to go through, the next mayor could be from any of the areas and it would be representation based on population.”
Sexton plans to bring the opinions and concerns heard at Sunday’s meeting to town council before a decision to file an application to the province is made.