ARICHAT: Richmond County’s Chief Administrative Officer is retiring in April.
In a press release issued on March 1, Richmond Municipal Council thanked Don Marchand for almost 27 years of service.
From the community of Louisdale, the release said Marchand started his career with the municipality and spent 24 years in the finance department before being appointed for a one-year term as interim CAO in June 2019, after which he took over the position permanently.
“On behalf of council, I want to thank CAO Marchand for his long years of service to the County. His deep knowledge of the history and administrative workings of the municipality have been an asset to us all,” noted Warden Amanda Mombourquette. “Reaching retirement after a fruitful career is a great accomplishment, and we all wish Don good health and the joy of spending time with family and friends in his retirement.”
Following the Feb. 28 regular monthly meeting, council said they officially began the search for a new CAO by reviewing the job description and hiring a human resources consulting firm.
Council approved a recommendation from the committee of the whole and from the Director of Public Works, Chris Boudreau, for two applications to the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
On the list, by priority, is the Arichat-Petit de Grat sewage treatment plant replacement and second is the closure of the former municipal landfill.
As a result of approving a recommendation from the committee of the whole municipal staff is reaching out to the Louisdale Lions Club to determine the feasibility of relocating the Louisdale Food Bank to the Richmond Arena.
Staff has been tasked with gathering information on electronics disposal options, as a result of council accepting a motion from the committee of the whole session.
Also from the committee of the whole, the municipality will be working with the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial and École Beau-Port administration to find safety solutions for the driveways entering and exiting the Arichat school.
The warden and deputy warden will be drafting a letter to the Department of Public Works about concerns with erosion and flooding on Evanston Road and Langley Lane in Municipal District 3, after passing a committee of the whole recommendation.
Another letter of concern from the warden and deputy warden, in collaboration with Richmond MLA Trevor Boudreau, will be sent out about landline issues during power outages in the communities of Dundee, St. George’s Channel, and Grand River, after council approved a recommendation.
In collaboration with the Cape Breton Partnership, Mombourquette will be setting up a meeting with Bell Aliant and Develop Nova Scotia to get information about the Broadband Expansion Project, after a motion was accepted.
And finally from the committee of the whole, council approved the River Bourgeois Mariners Society for a Type 4 Regional Health General Grant in the amount of $5,000, with $500 coming from District 4 and $4,500 from the general grant fund.
The Bras d’Or Lake Collaborative Environmental Planning Initiative (CEPI), of which the municipality is a founding member, wrote council about a funding request, which council referred to budget deliberations. There was no specific amount requested in the letter.
Councillors decided they want bilingual road signs to be erected in communities around Richmond County.
Last year Richmond County was left off the list of communities to English and French road signs installed and paid for by the provincial government, Mombourquette said.
The warden said she wrote a follow up letter to Public Works Minister Keith Masland reiterating the municipality’s wish to participate in the program, and along with that, Josette Marchand at Centre La Picasse sent a formal request to the minister.
Masland responded that council can highlight communities that might not want such signs.
Although District 5 Councillor Brent Sampson and District 2 Councillor Michael Diggdon said bilingual signs might not be as relevant in some communities, both decided that they offer more advantages than disadvantages.
“We all have to understand it’s just about making our signage better, not about decreasing it,” Diggdon told council. “We already have them in English, and adding the French is just adding it for our tourists and everybody else. It’s not like we’re adding harm to it.”
Like Diggdon, Sampson said it’s best to put the signs up around the county.
“If we start trying to figure it out for every little community that does or doesn’t want it, we’ll just get too deep into the weeds,” Sampson said. “It’s kind of all or nothing.”
District 1 Councillor Shawn Samson said as many places across the county should have those signs.
“We should have bilingual signs in as many places as we can, for sure, on this island and Richmond County,” Samson stated.
Deputy Warden Melanie Sampson noted that Richmond is a provincially designated Acadian riding.
“The main reason, when we talked about doing it, was because we are designated as a bilingual, as an Acadian community,” stated Sampson. “I feel it should be everywhere, even though it may not be necessarily be applicable, it is applicable to the county as a whole.”
Mombourquette requested the signs not replace existing bilingual or Mikmaw signs in the municipality.
“From my perspective, it’s really not about identifying a specific community within Richmond as Acadian or French,” she added.
After expressing their interest last month, councillors approved a recommendation from its committee of the whole to put Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations at Point Michaud Provincial Beach, Centre La Picasse in Petit de Grat, and Richmond Arena in Louisdale.
As a result of the motion, municipal staff will investigate cost, funding opportunities, and installation costs for Level 2 charging stations.
Deputy Warden Melanie Sampson wants Arichat put on the list, and she suggested that be discussed at their committee of the whole.
“The charging station in Arichat is privately-owned, and my understanding is it’s for the guests of the inn, and I don’t know whether we should investigate, whether or not, they would be willing to, for a fee, allow people to use that,” she told council. “I think that you’d be missing a big area if we didn’t have a charging station in the Arichat area as well.”
In January, council approved a recommendation from the committee of the whole to have staff investigate funding opportunities for multiple types of electric vehicle charging stations.
This came after the province announced $500,000 for the Clean Foundation to seek proposals from organizations to install up to 250 Level 2 electric vehicle chargers. The chargers will be installed across the province in public areas and will support light-duty vehicles.
Council wants more information on a project studying climate change and ocean farming.
Richmond Municipal Council reviewed two items of correspondence from the Arc of the Coast Ocean Farming Support.
After a phone conversation, Mombourquette suggested Arc of the Coast provide documentation on the work they’ve been doing, picking up from conversations they had with District 5 Councillor Brent Sampson.
“This is something they’ve been working on since 2018; gathering research, communicating with government officials, and securing funding to push initiatives forward. I do believe they got some funds from the WWF (World Wildlife Federation),” she noted. “They are looking at rolling out a public education plan aimed at informing communities and the general public of current and impending negative impacts of climate change on our ocean ecosystem; things that could potentially disrupt the lucrative fisheries, especially.”
One of those impacts is taking place in Maine causing the migration of lobster northward, the warden noted.
“This is due to the warming of the gulf, which is something, I think that we’re benefitting from but there’s no barrier on that migration,” she noted.
In addition to that, Mombourquette said Arc of the Coast is studying the potential of ocean farming as a way to diversify the ocean economy.
In the package, Arc of the Coast provided the municipality with an outline, and a strategy document to give them an idea of the scope of their project, Mombourquette said, noting there is no financial request, but they are looking for promotional support in their public education efforts.
The warden suggested having the company do an in-person or virtual presentation, which council agreed with.
“I think for everybody’s benefit, for ours and anybody watching at home, I think it would be a great idea to have a presentation on that so it can be better explained to everybody,” he added.
Richmond County is making changes to some of its financial policies, and there are plans to develop others.
Council adopted a motion from the municipal Bylaw and Policy Committee to serve notice that they want to amend the Travel Expense Policy to reduce duplication and clarify the differences between “in county” and “out of county” travel in the claim process.
Travel expense claims were among the issues raised during a financial scandal and forensic audit of municipal financial practices several years ago.
Mombourquette said the Bylaw and Policy Committee has been working on a management salary policy, and Brent Sampson suggested that the councillor’s payment policy be reviewed as soon as possible.
“It was just the fact, that originally prior to staff unionization and prior to the discussions we had tonight, there was an adjustment tied to (the Consumer Price Index), where that won’t be the case going forward for everybody else,” he noted. “CPI is going to be especially high this year. I don’t think we want to give the impression that there’s a larger for councillors than there would be for staff.”
Mombourquette agreed that this should be a policy soon.
“We did forego it in the last budget, but I think you made the point earlier councillor that we should set that in policy so that we’re not in the position of breaking policy,” noted the warden.
During the same meeting, council also passed a notice of motion that it will be making changes to the Volunteer Fire Department Payment and Reporting Policy.