Sackville’s newly elected town council held their first regular meeting last night, and councillors had a lot to say. The meeting clocked in at just over 4 hours long, with motion required to extend past the official cut off time of 10:30pm.
One of the hot items up for discussion was town council’s role in responding to the temporary cuts to weekend overnight ER service at the Sackville Memorial Hospital.
After considerable discussion, council passed a motion to appoint the mayor and one councillor to the ad hoc committee established by community members, but not to formalize it either as a committee of council, or as a Mayor’s roundtable.
Early in the meeting Mayor Shawn Mesheau reported on his actions to date on the file, including numerous media interviews, and writing a letter to Health Minister Dorothy Shephard to enquire about the proposed vision for health care in the Tantramar region sent to her by former Deputy Mayor Ron Aiken. Mesheau said he heard back and would be meeting with Minister Shephard as well as local government minister Daniel Allain on Thursday.
Mesheau also said he would be reaching out to other mayors in New Brunswick previously affected by last year’s proposed cuts to emergency services and acute care beds.
Mesheau said former mayor Pat Estabrooks, a member of the local ad hoc committee formed in response to the most recent temporary cuts, had asked the town to formalize the new committee as well as appoint a councillor to sit on it. Mesheau responded that he would be reaching out to other communities in the region first.
“This particular situation is is not just a situation that’s affecting Sackville, but it’s affecting the region,” Mesheau said Monday night. “And so I’ll be reaching out to the mayor of Dorchester, which we already had a conversation on Friday, as well as the mayor Port Elgin and mayor of Memramcook, and Chief Knockwood at Fort folly. I believe it’s important that we meet to discuss how we see this formalizing, and make a recommendation back as to appointments that might come from our particular councils or our communities.”
New councillor Sabine Dietz had requested the hospital discussion be added to Monday’s agenda, and so at the end of the long meeting, council tackled the issue.
“I think council needs to be very forcefully part of those conversations,” said Dietz. “As a new councillor, I’m not exactly sure how we do that… But I very, very strongly believe that we as Council have a gigantic role to play here. And we need to take it by the horns.”
Dietz said she wanted to clearly establish the current role of council on the issue, even though it might change as time goes on.
Mesheau said while he wanted to make sure the town was supportive of the ad hoc committee and responds to their needs, he felt that it was not the town’s role to lead the group. He mentioned an example of a resident approaching him at work saying that council should be organizing a protest.
“That’s not the municipality’s role, to organize protests,” said Mesheau. “The municipality needs to be working with all levels of government. We may not agree with government, but the municipality needs to build on those relationships, and we have to ensure that we’re playing that role.”
Mesheau also expressed concern that the town has been reactive instead of proactive on the hospital services issue. “We’ve had physicians tell us this,” said Mesheau. “Doctor [Allison] Dysart stood right here in 2015 or 2016 and said that very same thing. It’s the fact that we’re reacting, and we need to be proactive. And every time we seem to put it to bed, that they’re not going to make changes, we walk away.”
Mesheau advocated for a longer term, regional group to work towards securing hospital services.
Other councillors and CAO Jamie Burke agreed that health care was outside the direct mandate of the town, but also that the future of the hospital was incredibly important to almost all other aspects of the town. Most seemed to want town council to take some sort of active role.
Councillor Michael Tower said he was in agreement with Councillor Dietz. “I think it is our job to show leadership. I think it’s our job to get involved,” said Tower. “We have the podium we can use to talk to either Higgs or anybody up there. Because the operation and health of this town is still part of our mandate. And I think we have to find ways to make that work.”
In the end council approved a motion from Sabine Dietz directing the mayor and one councillor to take part in the ad hoc committee, but not to lead it.