In November of this year, residents of the future Entity 40 will elect eight councillors and a mayor, according to information released today by the town of Sackville.
The new Entity will use a ward system to elect councillors, with at least 4 councillors to be elected from within the current town of Sackville boundary, and at least one to be elected from the current Village of Dorchester and surrounding Dorchester LSD.
The maps for the wards have yet to be decided, but will be by March 4, according to the announcement.
Sackville has roughly 60% of the population of the to-be-formed Entity 40, and will have 50% of council seats in the new council. The mayoralty will be elected at-large, and that will favour a candidate from the soon-to-be-former town of Sackville, considering its relatively higher population.
Other at-large components could still figure into the new ward system. The four representatives from the current town of Sackville could represent four different wards within the town, or could be elected at-large within a single Sackville ward. The option also exists to divide Sackville into two wards, and elect two representatives from each.
Currently, both Sackville and Dorchester have completely at-large systems, meaning that elected councillors represent the whole municipality, and everyone gets to vote on each seat. Ballots for Sackville and Dorchester currently include a list of candidates and voters are asked to fill a slate with candidates. Under this new system, people from each ward will only vote for a single candidate from their ward, though its still possible the town of Sackville will have an at-large vote within a large ward.
An advisory committee of eight elected and appointed representatives discussed the decision in a meeting last night, along with provincially appointed facilitator Chad Peters. Peters is tasked with finding consensus among advisory committee members, but is responsible for the final decision on all matters pertaining to amalgamation of Entity 40.
Entity 40 advisory committee, elected and appointed representatives
- Mayor Shawn Mesheau, Town of Sackville
- Deputy Mayor Andrew Black, Town of Sackville
- Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell, Village of Dorchester
- Deputy Mayor Robert Corkerton, Village of Dorchester
- Mary Ellen Trueman, Pointe de Bute LSD
- Greg Martin, Pointe de Bute LSD
- Chris Milner, Sackville LSD
- Matt Beal, Dorchester LSD (40%)
