Most of the town of Sackville will be represented by four councillors elected at-large in a single ward when a newly formed Entity 40 council takes charge in January 2023.
An advisory committee of representatives from Sackville, Dorchester and surrounding areas met Thursday evening with consultant Chad Peters to discuss the decision. At the meeting, Peters presented a revised draft of the ward map for Entity 40, based on feedback he received from Sackville representatives Mayor Shawn Mesheau and Deputy Mayor Andrew Black.
The new map shows another part of the current town of Sackville shaved off to be included with a large Midgic ward that now stretches from the middle of Silver Lake all the way up to the border with Beaubassin East.
The update posted on the town of Sackville website says, “these revised boundaries provide a more equitable share of electors compared to the first drafts.”
There are 4415 electors in the single Sackville ward, meaning roughly 1104 electors per representative. The Midgic ward will now have 615 electors and the Point de Bute ward will remain at 415. Dorchester remains at 600, and West Sackville-Rockport is reduced to 655. Guidelines distributed to municipalities from the province recommended that each ward not deviate from an average elector population by more than 15%, though in special circumstances that could stretch to 25%. The revised elector counts reduce the size of deviations, but those still range from 22% to 50%.
The town of Sackville update says that the advisory committee will obtain feedback on the revised boundaries from their respective councils or committees, and reconvene on March 16 for further discussions. The deadline for finalizing the boundaries is now March 31.
The topic of municipal reform is on the agenda for the next town of Sackville council meeting, taking place Monday March 7, at 7pm.
