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. In an interview Tuesday, Dietz said she would consider going if the meeting was opened up to the public.
“These meetings should not be in private, behind closed doors,” said Dietz. “I do understand it’s a minister’s meeting. I do understand he can do what he wants. But I also think the community is owed, we all owe it to the communities to have this out in public. If there’s discontent and dissent, and people speak out or council speak out, then that is fair enough. The minister needs to hear that this is not all fine and dandy now.”
Dietz says she has requested a special meeting of council to discuss the issue, though that requires approval from at least four councillors, and timing is tight.
Councillor Bill Evans has also decided to sit out the meeting with Allain in protest. In an open letter to the Minister distributed on Tuesday, Evans recapped his well-documented frustration and disappointment with the forced amalgamation of Sackville, the lack of consultation once the White Paper was released, and the decision to ignore the province’s own guidelines on representation by population. He concluded his letter wondering what the point of a private meeting with the minister would be at this point in time:
“This process has been flawed at every step; from dishonest assurances about no forced amalgamation, through an undemocratic process to an undemocratic outcome, with a sham of a consultation process. And now that everything of substance has been determined, you are apparently willing to meet with us in private to answer questions. But what is the point now?”
Minister Allain is due at town hall on Friday morning. The meeting’s agenda has not distributed in advance, but it will be a relatively short one, with just one hour set aside to meet with councillors and representatives from the future Entity 40.
