ANTIGONISH: The community group that has backed litigation against the Municipality of the County of Antigonish to quash the consolidation decision, hosted community meetings in December to update the public.
Let Antigonish Decide hosted meetings in Heatherton on Dec. 12 and in Antigonish on Dec. 16, and they are planning for additional community meetings in Lakevale, Lochaber, Maryvale, and Havre Boucher between Jan. 23 and Feb. 3.
Providing an update on the legal challenge to the group of about 25 people, Sarah Armstrong, a founding member of Let Antigonish Decide, said she hasn’t been directly involved in the litigation process.
“The basis of the legal challenge is we do not believe, and our legal counsel does not believe, that the Municipality of the County of Antigonish’s council (had) the legal right to make the decision to consolidate,” Armstrong said during the Antigonish meeting. “The reason that we believe this is there is legislation in the Municipal Government Act that lays out exactly what powers the municipality has and what they can and cannot do, and in this, it does lay out how a consolidation, or an amalgamation, as it’s written in the law, can happen.”
A representative with the Nova Scotia Judiciary told The Reporter on Jan. 10, that there still has been nothing filed against the municipality in Supreme Court.
Asked about the legal matter following their regular monthly council meeting on Dec. 13, Warden Owen McCarron suggested there’s not much of an update on their end.
“I haven’t been participating in those meetings, so I really don’t have much to add on that,” McCarron told reporters. “We’re just waiting to see where that matter goes, but there hasn’t been any further discussion.”
Armstrong said the 27 named in the suit, comes out to two at least two claimants for every district in the county.
“By asking for that special legislation, what is essentially being asked, is asking for permission to skirt the law, so that’s basically where we’re at,” Armstrong said. “At this point we’re still in a waiting period, the earliest date we can take it to the Supreme Court is Dec. 28 and we anticipate that we will do that.”
When asked how much they think needs to be raised to fight the municipality in court, Armstrong estimated it to be “quite substantial at the minimum,” with the natural delays that occur in court proceedings.
Addressing that two county councillors were advised there were conflicts of interest and were not able to vote on consolidation as they could be issued a $25,000 fine and potential jail time, Armstrong noted they represented 20 per cent of the county’s population.
“They were told the rest of council would vote on their behalf, but both of those councillors were councillors who were against the motion,” she said. “Their exclusion substantially changed the outcome of the vote in our view.”
Chad Brazier said the right of reach resident to make the decision on consolidation is the pressing issue, rather than the outcome of the vote itself.
“The real issue is, if we back up, that vote was illegitimate,” Brazier said. “We had every right to expect a democratic participation on that.”
Armstrong suggested through recent communication with Antigonish MLA Michelle Thompson, it seems as if her initial opinion that there wasn’t a lot of opposition on the matter, is changing.
“She might be changing that tune a little bit, I’ve seen the emails, but I haven’t had any communication with her directly,” she said. “There was an ask for her to bring up the petitions we have been circulating and she said she would be willing to speak on the petitions in the legislature, so that to us signifies that she may be realizing there is a lot of us who are concerned and her original assessment was faulty.”
A community member asked for the names of the 27 people who put their names forward but Armstrong advised she wasn’t going to disclose that information as they are still in the notice stage.
As for the efforts on the petition that’s circulating both the town and county, Town Councillor Diane Roberts advised while she didn’t have official numbers from the county, they had already garnered over 1,000 signatures in the town alone, with a goal of reaching 2,500.