Sackville council’s municipal reform committee met Wednesday night for a short meeting with about ten people in attendance, two of whom were Sackville town councillors.
Councillors Bill Evans and Sabine Dietz recapped the work of the committee so far but agreed it would not likely meet again in the near future, as most of the decisions that the committee was concerned with have now been finalized by the province. Dietz said the conversations around issues like the opposition to the forced amalgamation and influence on the structure of the future Entity 40 are now moot.
“Whether there will be democratic representation or not, and what the ward boundaries may be, that is all done,” said Dietz. “This committee can no longer… There’s no point in having conversations about that, because there’s not going to be any influence on any decisions being made.”
Dietz and Evans both agreed it would be unlikely for another meeting of the committee to be called anytime soon, but both also commented on the role the committee has played and could still play as a place for public feedback to be shared.
“The only remaining purpose, as I see it,” said Evans, “is as a forum for members of the public to ask questions interactively.” Evans noted that members of the public are limited in their ability to comment at regular council meetings. (At monthly special council meetings, there is a 15-minute period at the end of the meeting where the public can ask questions for “clarification purposes of information shared with Council.” Then at monthly regular council meetings, there are two public question periods, where members of the public may address council.)
Along with the two councillors and roughly half dozen residents in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, there was Greg Martin, one of two people appointed by the province to represent the Point de Bute area on its elected officials advisory committee.
Martin was the only person from the committee to attend. Neither Mayor Shawn Mesheau nor Deputy Mayor Andrew Black, Sackville’s appointed representatives on the committee, attended, though Black did send regrets and an update, which was read by Councillor Bill Evans.
The advisory committee will next meet with provincial facilitator Chad Peters on Tuesday March 29, to start the discussion on choosing a new name for Entity 40. Black’s comments, passed on through Evans, expressed concern that there might be some misinformation about what the naming process means for communities. “There are many people out there in what will be the new entity, who are scared that their community will be losing its name,” said Evans on behalf of Black. “This is absolutely not true.”
Black admonished the province for not taking on the communications role in the process, and said it would be up to municipal leaders to inform people. “It falls on us to assure Sackvillians and everyone else that they don’t need to worry. If you live in Sackville, Dorchester, Westcock, Midgic, Cookville… any of these places, that is still where you will live. Your address will remain the same,” Black wrote. “But your community will be part of a governance structure that has a separate name.”
Black also said there would be a public engagement component to the decision on the new name. The timeline for the name decision is quite relaxed compared to other aspects of the forced amalgamation process, with a name not due to the province until May 16.
Council formally complains to Daniel Allain
The turnout from Sackville town councillors was low for last night’s meeting, low enough to suggest that the controversy over forced amalgamation may have fizzled out in Sackville, even before decisions are made on the new name and taxation areas of the new Entity.
However, just last week, a majority of councillors voted to have the Mayor send two letters to Minister Daniel Allain, both complaining about specific decisions made by the province which will impact the future Entity 40.
The motion to send both letters came during a meeting where the issue of discussing municipal reform itself was contested. Councillor Sabine Dietz tried to add the topic to council’s agenda on March 14, but the move was vetoed with a single nay vote from Councillor Matt Estabrooks.
Instead Dietz raised her concerns during departmental reports that mentioned municipal reform, and council managed to eke out two discussions on the topic, and pass its motions to formally object.
The first letter, signed by Mayor Mesheau, calls out the province’s last minute change to the boundaries of Entity 40 to remove large tracts of woodlands. In the letter, council strongly objects to the change in boundaries, pointing out that they had previously been told by the province that boundaries were finalized and could not be changed.
Most of the removed lands are owned by JD Irving Ltd, and will now be part of a rural district. Under the province’s municipal reform plan, the majority of New Brunswick’s land will remain in Rural Districts, which look very similar to the Local Service Districts they replace. Rural Districts have elected advisory committees, but they will have no legal authority to set their own by-laws, as municipalities do.
The second letter signed by the mayor contains a formal request that a fifth councillor be added to represent the Sackville ward. The letter says this would be, “fair and more equitable representation based on our population numbers.”
Minister Allain has not responded to either letter as of March 24, 2022.
How Sackville’s request for a fifth rep got turned down
The request for a fifth representative is something that Andrew Black and Shawn Mesheau had made to Chad Peters earlier in March, but Peters ended up turning down the request. Black recounted how that happened at council’s monthly discussion meeting on March 7, 2022.
At that meeting, Black said that after hearing about some of the back and forth on decisions in other amalgamations in the province, he decided to make an attempt to address the concerns about representation by population that had been raised by councillors and citizens in Sackville. And so after consulting the CAO and Mayor Shawn Mesheau, he approached consultant Chad Peters.
“I figured I knew what the answer would be,” said Black, “but I asked if it was possible to have an extra councillor in the town of Sackville, so there would be five for the town of Sackville, and there would be four for the surrounding areas. So that there would be the possibility of better representation by population or taxation, however you look at it.”
Black said Peters’ response was unexpected. “I thought he would say no,” said Black. But instead, Peters consulted his superiors in the department of local government. “Later that day, he called back and said that the recommendation from the department was that we could sort of push it back to the advisory committee, and ask them,” said Black.
At their next meeting, Peters gave the advisory committee 30 minutes to discuss the proposal and reach a consensus. If they could not, Peters said the previous decision, for Sackville to have four of eight councillors in Entity 40, would stand.
“I laid out my case,” said Black. “Comments were made by various LSD members, I answered, and it went back and forth… At the end of it, there was not consensus,” said Black. And so Entity 40 will remain represented by eight councillors, four of whom are elected in a former town of Sackville ward.
Black didn’t say who on the committee refused Sackville’s proposal for a fifth representative, but a single opposed view would have been enough to veto it, under the conditions laid out by Peters and the province.
According to the province’s timeline, March 31 is the “drop dead” date for any changes to ward boundaries in new amalgamated entities. Detailed maps of some ward boundaries have been published on the town of Sackville website, but a map showing the complete ward system has not.
And then in less than two weeks, by April 11, the taxation areas are to be finalized. New entities will be permitted to have different taxation areas with different rates, to reflect different access to services across the new municipality.
In May, the province wants to finalize the names and types of the new entities. They will also begin budget preparation and CAO recruitment in May.
