‘Be part of this historic initiative’: Allain tries to drum up more candidates for municipal elections
There is just one week to go for candidates to nominate themselves for municipal elections in New Brunswick, and so far there are just eight candidates registered with Elections NB for the new town of Tantramar.
Tantramar Candidates according to Elections NB unofficial list
Mayor
Shawn Mesheau
Ward 1 (Dorchester) – One councillor seat available
Debbie Wiggins-Colwell
Robert Corkerton
Ward 2 (West Sackville/Rockport) – One councillor seat available
None
Ward 3 (Sackville) – Four councillor seats available
Mike Tower
Josh Goguen
Allison Butcher
Ward 4 (Upper Sackville/Midgic) – One councillor seat available
Matt Estabrooks
Ward 5 (Point de Bute/Aulac) – One councillor seat available
Greg Martin
Current Sackville councillor Sabine Dietz says she will be running in Ward 4 (Upper Sackville/Midgic) though she has yet to register.
Two current Sackville councillors have informed CHMA they will not be running: Bill Evans and Ken Hicks. Others are expected to declare candidacy soon, including Andrew Black and Bruce Phinney.
Counting Dietz as a candidate, there are just two actual elections guaranteed to take place in Tantramar, with no contest so far for Mayor, councillors in Ward 3 (Sackville), and councillor in Ward 5 (Point de Bute). There are no candidates whatsoever for councillor in Ward 2 (West Sackville).
There are also no candidates for the elected advisory committee for the new Southeast Rural District which is spread over eight distinct areas of the region, from north of Midgic to the Canaan Bog to the edges of Fundy National Park.… Continue
Allain dismisses Sackville council concerns and affirms appointment of Jennifer Borne as Tantramar CAO
Note: This story was updated at 5:45pm to include comments from Sackville councillor Michael Tower.
Local Government Minister Daniel Allain has turned down Mayor Shawn Mesheau’s request for an independent review of the process behind hiring a new Tantramar CAO. In a letter to council this week, Allain said he was sticking with his appointment of Dorchester CAO Jennifer Borne to head up the staff for the new municipality of Tantramar. The only other candidate for the job was Sackville CAO Jamie Burke.
Mesheau wrote to Allain about two weeks ago after Sackville town council asked him to do so at their regular July meeting. Mesheau called the process which resulted in Borne’s appointment “fundamentally flawed”, and asked for a meeting with Allain and a review of the whole process by an independent HR consultant.
The minister and the mayor met last week, and this week, Allain sent his reply to all councillors expressing his “confidence in the recruitment process leading to [his] decision to appoint Jennifer Borne to the role.”
Allain’s letter mentioned the province’s contract with Jennifer Murray Consulting of Moncton, whom he said were “responsible for overseeing a biased free [sic] recruitment process leading to a fair and objective evaluation of candidates.”
The letter reads, “The position advertisement, essential qualifications, competencies, and candidate evaluation grid were based on an objective assessment of the position requirements and all candidates were assessed based on the established criteria.”… Continue
‘We’re making decisions for the next 50 years’: Allain on reform process and ‘keeping rural, rural’
Minister Daniel Allain defended his approach to local governance reform on Friday in Sackville, shortly after a meeting with local elected officials from Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding areas. Allain spent about an hour and 45 minutes in the closed door meeting, and spoke to reporters for about 10 minutes afterwards.
Allain has been heavily criticised by some Sackville town councillors who feel he misrepresented the process of local governance reform. He surprised many by prescribing amalgamations in a number of jurisdictions, including Sackville, against the wishes of local councils. He has also been criticised for offering no further public consultations on the process after the plan for amalgamations was released.
Allain disagrees with that description of events. “I think that’s not right,” he said Friday. “We’ve consulted with New Brunswickers.”
“I go to legislative assembly on a weekly basis to talk about local governance reform. As I indicated there, nobody was forced to do anything,” said Allain. Both the town of Sackville and the village of Dorchester wrote to Allain opposing the amalgamation of Entity 40, but both are powerless to prevent it.
Allain also insisted that his department had done enough public consultation, detailing the process that happened before the plan was announced, and that fact that shortly after the plan was released, existing councils were given a tight deadline to suggest changes to proposed boundaries.… Continue
Local governance reform minister Daniel Allain to meet privately with elected officials in Sackville Friday
Local government minister Daniel Allain is coming to Sackville town hall this Friday to meet with councillors and representatives from Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding areas, but the meeting will be closed to the public.
News of the private meeting with Allain was shared Monday night at Sackville town council’s monthly discussion meeting, after Councillor Bill Evans prompted Mayor Shawn Mesheau to mention it. The mayor had just finished his update on municipal reform without mentioning the meeting with the minister, when Evans chimed in to ask if he planned to mention it.
“Minister Allain’s office has reached out and has requested a meeting with members of council, members of Dorchester council and the other members who participate on the elected officials Advisory Committee,” replied Mesheau. “It won’t be a public meeting. It’ll be a private meeting with ministers.”
Secrecy has been a hallmark of the amalgamation process so far. Though the appointed facilitator for the process, Chad Peters, is authorized with creating a new budget and employment structure for the new Entity 40, he is not authorized to speak with media. And ever since the forced amalgamation was announced, neither Allain nor Peters has held a meeting open to citizens of the future Entity 40.
That doesn’t sit right with some town councillors.
Councillor Sabine Dietz told council on Monday that she would sit out the meeting in protest.… Continue
The future of Entity 40 full of unknowns, says Sackville CAO
By this time next year, the town of Sackville won’t exist as a legal entity, and a new, larger municipality will govern locally.
The province announced in December it will go ahead with plans to amalgamate Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding areas into a new municipal unit, despite protest from both Sackville and Dorchester councils. In December, Mayor Shawn Mesheau sent in a counter proposal to the department of local government, suggesting that it leave the town of Sackville as is and amalgamate Dorchester, Port Elgin, and surrounding areas into an even larger municipality. The proposal was developed at an in camera meeting of council, so the discussions were not recorded and remain outside public scrutiny.
In an email, department spokesperson Anne Mooers says her colleagues reviewed the Sackville proposal and “determined that the best way forward to benefit the area for the next generation was to bring the two local governments [Sackville and Dorchester] together.”
“We look forward to working through the transition with them and supporting them,” writes Mooers.
But just exactly what that transition will look like is still largely unknown outside Mooers’ department.
CHMA spoke to Sackville CAO Jamie Burke last week to find out what he knows so far about the process.