Just shy of a dozen Sackvillians gathered in front of town hall on Tuesday to express their frustration with the amalgamation process that will see the town of Sackville and village of Dorchester dissolved and a new Entity 40 created to take their place.
Resident Elaine Smith had a clear message she wanted to send to the province. “The last rally I spoke at was the hospital rally, and I told the province to stop messing with the hospital,” said Smith. “So I’m telling them the same thing. Stop messing with our town and leave us the way we are right now, or at least give us time to consider the options.”
More time and opportunity for consultation were common requests from the residents out on Tuesday. Protest organizer Carol Cooke pointed to a sign calling on Premier Higgs to “consult with the people!” saying she hoped that would be the theme for the protest, which will continue Wednesday at noon at town hall.
Cooke said she was “thrilled at the turnout,” for the protest. “I really thought I’d be wandering around by myself. But we’ve got people here who’ve supported the hospital and done so much for this town, and they really care,” said Cooke. “And I’m hoping and thinking there’ll be more people tomorrow.”
Resident Sabine Bessier said she’s hoping Minister Daniel Allain will consider a pause in the process to make room for conversations and education. “It just seems very rushed, very sudden, not really involving people in discussions that perhaps should be happening,” said Bessier.
“There would be so much to gain from having community input,” said Jeska Grue, who also has concerns about representation on the new council. “Population wise, where you have 50% representation for 68% of the municipality,” said Grue. “I don’t know how that’s really going to function in the long term. People go underrepresented.”
Hear voices from the protest here:
Bill Evans was at the protest Tuesday as a citizen and town councillor for Sackville. Evans has been vocally opposed to the amalgamation being forced by the province, and also to the process as it has unfolded. “I’m delighted that there are other people who are objecting to it,” said Evans. “As soon as people find out about the details, they say, ‘Oh my God, that’s not right.’ And then they find out more and they say, “Oh, it’s even worse than I thought.’”
“I just don’t think the whole process has been very democratic,” said resident Al Smith. “It’s just been forced on us with virtually no consultation. I think they need to have more time to look at things and delve into it, and do what would be better representation for the whole region.”
Minister Daniel Allain was interviewed Tuesday morning on CBC Moncton’s Information Morning, and he was asked about the need for the rushed process. Allain acknowledged the province’s tight timeline, and told host Jonna Brewer that, “we want to be poised to make sure that we don’t lose services, because that’s why we’re doing this.”
Allain also indicated staffing crises in a variety of industries were impacting the decision to move forward quickly.
It’s not clear what services Allain feels are in danger of being lost, and CHMA has reached out to the department of local government for clarification. It’s also not clear how worker shortages impact or will be remedied by the province’s plan to dissolve local governments and establish new entities to take their place.
“We’ve been asking for restructuring for a long time,” Allain told Brewer. “It’s time to do it.”
The advisory committee appointed to help design the new council for Entity 40 will meet again on Thursday to finalize boundaries for wards to be used for electing the new council.
In a meeting last week, a majority of Sackville town councillors expressed their support for leaving the entire former town of Sackville intact, to operate as a single ward that will elect four representatives, but its not clear what decision provincial facilitator Chad Peters on that issue.
Check out CHMA’s coverage of local governance reform and amalgamation here:
