Employees with the town of Antigonish may soon be a more diverse set of co workers.
Town council signed an equity, diversity and inclusion accord at Monday night’s regular council meeting.
In practice, it would see the town advertise job postings more widely to make sure that members of underrepresented communities see it and know what opportunities are available, according to Mayor Laurie Boucher.
Increasing diversity in the workplace will benefit everyone, and will make Antigonish a more attractive place to be, Boucher says.
“It helps our community thrive because it actually attracts other newcomers to our area as well,” Boucher says. “And when I say newcomers I don’t just mean immigrants from other countries, I mean coming from other provinces, other communities.”
There are many underrepresented groups in town who will benefit from this, Boucher says. She also notes that oftentimes immigrants who move to the area are highly qualified and trained, but simply aren’t aware of what jobs are available to them.
Also at last night’s socially-minded meeting, council voted to make Sept. 30 a holiday for municipal staff. It’s been dubbed the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, in honour of Indigenous communities and the traumas they’ve suffered at the hands of the federal government and RCMP.
Beyond having a day off, Boucher says the municipality will take steps to share information about reconciliation with the community.
“When things like this happen and we do recognize truth and reconciliation, we ensure that’s not going to happen again — we can’t forget the past.”
Council also signed a proclamation designating Sept. 27- Oct. 3 as the Right to Know week.
The proclamation serves as a reminder to people of Antigonish that council and committee meetings can be attended by anyone.
“This council is very proud of the transparency and the openness that we conduct our business and we would like to encourage all citizens to take part in meetings, committees and valuable discussions,” she says.
Among those valuable discussions is the ongoing exploration of consolidating the town and county of Antigonish into one regional government.
Currently, the two entities are organizing workshops with the Municipality of West Hants — the most recent consolidation of municipal governments in Nova Scotia, Boucher says.
Next, they’ll begin public outreach to answer any questions from members of the communities that would be involved in the consolidation.
