The executive director of the Strait Area Chamber of Commerce says a number of business owners in Richmond Co. are very concerned by the actions of their municipal councillors.
Amanda Mombourquette says some members of the local business community contacted chamber officials, then chamber officials reached out to other business owners.
Mombourquette tells The Hawk recent decisions to fire the municipality’s chief administrative officer and leave the Eastern District Planning Commission and Cape Breton Regional Enterprise Network have a big impact.
“There’s some long-term reputational damage happening right now for Richmond Co. as a place to live, work and invest,” she says. “The recent actions of council are absolutely on the minds of people across, I would say, the province.”
Mombourquette says there’s a culture of dysfunction and mistrust on council, and councillors should resign if they can’t fix it.
She says many local business owners aren’t happy with the current situation.
“There definitely was a level of dissatisfaction expressed,” she says. “As a result, we felt we needed to respond on behalf of the business community.”
Mombourquette says chamber officials sent a letter to councillors to outline the concerns raised.
She says they also addressed the letter to the premier and the province’s municipal affairs minister to ask them to provide councillors with some guidance on conflict resolution and conflict of interest.
