One municipal councillor in Inverness Co. says the distance he must travel to attend meetings in Port Hood is unfair.
During January’s regular municipal council meeting Thursday afternoon, Alfred Poirier, the representative for District 1 (Cheticamp-Pleasant Bay-Meat Cove) said there’s been long standing unfairness to Cheticamp-area councillors.
Councillors agreed to move the monthly meeting time to 3 p.m.
Poirier said that’s not acceptable for in-person meetings at the municipal building in Port Hood.
“At five o’clock, I’m coming home,” he said. “Three (until) five, after five o’clock the stars are going to be out; I’m coming home.”
Poirier said an hour-and-a-half of travel time is far longer than his counterparts.
He said rotating the regular council meeting through each district would be fair, but Zoom has already fixed the problem.
Laurie Cranton, Inverness Co.’s warden, said using Zoom is an emergency measure for the COVID-19 pandemic as far as he’s concerned.
“When that’s over with, which we hope will be sooner than later, municipal affairs could come in and say ‘We’re not giving permission for that type of meeting anymore’.”
Cranton said rotating meetings isn’t practical either, largely from cost and accessibility standpoints, and he travels more than an hour as well.
He said he’s open to using Zoom for bad weather or other extenuating circumstances, but it’s not a replacement for meeting in-person.
Poirier said he’s going to keep using the platform.
“I don’t want to hear that Zoom is not [an option] because it can be done, and it will be done, because I will do it,” he said. “It’s about fairness- that’s all it is.”
Regular council meetings are set to run at 3 p.m. on a trial basis for the next three months; councillors will decide if they should be in-person on a meeting-by-meeting basis.
