ANTIGONISH: Consensus around the council table was the Municipality of the County of Antigonish doesn’t share anything in common with industrial Cape Breton.
The comments were initially made by District 7 Councillor John Dunbar during the regular committee of the whole meeting on May 10 as senior staff discussed the upcoming boundary review, as the federal electoral districts are reviewed every 10 years to reflect changes and movements in Canada’s population.
“You won’t be surprised, I definitely think we need to speak up loudly about this,” Dunbar said. “We have common interests with the Strait region, with Port Hawkesbury, we have nothing in common with Glace Bay, that’s industrial Cape Breton.”
A public hearing will take place at Antigonish’s Town Hall on May 31 at 6:30 p.m. with the boundary review committee, which consists of Justice Cindy A. Bourgeois; Louise Carbert, Dalhousie University associate professor of Political Science and Cape Breton University Political Science professor David Johnson.
Currently, west of South River is with Central Nova and represented by Sean Fraser, while east of South River is within Cape Breton-Canso and is represented by Mike Kelloway. The new movement is to shift all of Antigonish County to a new Cape Breton-Antigonish riding.
“I think as you heard tonight, council, with no disrespect to the member in Cape Breton-Canso now, but our county feels that it aligns better with the residents in Pictou County, there’s more in common,” McCarron told reporters following the meeting. “Our council will be making a presentation to that boundary review committee because we feel strongly that, and you heard it from the councillors from Havre Boucher to the Pictou County line, every councillor feels the need for us to stand up and make sure Antigonish stays within the boundaries of what we formerly knew as Central Nova.”
CAO Glenn Horne explained to council as the population in the Halifax-Metro area grows, those seats and boundaries tend to migrate in that direction.
McCarron suggested Antigonish has a deep connection with Pictou County and they think it’s important to make a presentation. They’re also asking public citizens to make sure their voices are heard on this huge issue.
“You don’t get an opportunity often to impact the outcome, but I think it’s important for us to reflect on what challenges it might present to our community if we lose that connection to our neighbours to the west,” he said. “That’s the message from council tonight; the complete county should be in the riding of Central Nova, being a split riding is challenging on a variety of issues; if you’re looking for infrastructure projects sometimes it just doesn’t work out that well.”
Having said that, McCarron suggested MPs can’t really voice their opinion in boundary reviews, so they’re limited in what they can say, but as residents and councillors, they do have an opportunity to express their opinions.