ANTIGONISH: A councillor in the Town of Antigonish says there are too many unanswered questions, as he has not received any additional information on the status of consolidation in nearly two weeks.
“Haven’t heard from the mayor, she’s been quiet, and the only thing I’ve received was that email at 4:24 p.m. on March 24, two weeks ago Friday, from Jeff Lawrence,” Councillor Sean Cameron told The Reporter. “Their silence is deafening.”
The elected official believes the lack of communication from both his council and the Municipality of the County of Antigonish is a result of the mayor and warden having conversations with the Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing. He said both municipal units were expecting to have consolidation introduced during the current sitting of the Nova Scotia Legislature.
“And the provincial government decided to pull the plug on it,” Cameron said. “I think the Let Antigonish Decide group put so much pressure on the premier and the MLAs that it would not be in the government’s best interest to push the legislation through.”
Everything the grassroots community group undertook, from the financial donations, signage, petitions, letter writing campaigns, emails, to people generally talking in the streets, and then the results of the poll, impacted the Houston government’ decision, Cameron suggested.
“I think that was the proverbial straw. Politicians, their first job is to get re-elected, and I think the poll indicated that would not be the case,” Cameron said, speaking on the results of the recent Mainstreet Research poll. “The Department of Health and Wellness takes about half of the provincial budget, so it’s a very important portfolio and the risk of losing Michelle, trumped the forced consolidation.”
He suggested the mayor and warden continuously preached the consolidation was a done deal, until it wasn’t.
“We even received an email from Jeff Lawrence on how a bill gets passed into a law, and to stay tuned as legislation was just about ready to be passed,” Cameron said. “And then nothing.”
When asked if he knew if consolidation was only scrapped from the spring sitting of the legislature or had been nixed altogether, the councillor indicated he had no idea.
“I would assume when the government said no, they didn’t specify no, just the spring, they didn’t qualify it, so I’m thinking it’s no, period,” Cameron said. “It appears municipal affairs are still meeting behind council’s back, trying to keep it alive, and I don’t know; if the government says no, I think that should be the end of it.”
Despite making inquiries with the Town of Antigonish, the Municipality of the County of Antigonish and the Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing on consolidation, no responses to The Reporter’s requests for comment were made prior to publication.
“This should have been resolved before Easter, after the weekend, the house sits between April 11 and April 14, so why can’t it be resolved then?” Cameron said as he questioned a meeting that’s anticipated to happen with the Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing on April 19. “Why are they waiting until after both town and county councils meet, to have these discussions; is it to keep information away from councillors for another month?”