The community organization Let Antigonish Decide has demanded the Town and County of Antigonish hold a plebiscite vote on the proposed consolidation of the two communities. Some community members feel that they have not been properly consulted during the community engagement sessions held by the Town and County and they feel having a plebiscite vote is the best way to let both municipalities know where they stand on consolidation.
Town of Antigonish Mayor Laurie Boucher says a plebiscite vote is not required for a consolidation process and they feel that enough community members were consulted on the proposal during public consultation meetings. “We know that our effort was the biggest effort across the province to engage the public, we did our due diligence getting information out to people.” Says Boucher. She added that the low turnouts at the engagement sessions indicated that people were aware of what was going on and had no issues.
There are a lot of misconceptions and concerns about the proposed consolidation of the Town and County. One is that the Town of Antigonish will cease to exist and be absorbed by the County, something that Boucher says is false. What will happen is the town will dissolve, the County will restructure, and the restructure will include the Town with a 50/50 partnership. Another concern brought up is that taxes in the County could go up. “Taxes will not rise because of consolidation.” says Boucher “We can say that by looking at other municipalities that have consolidated or amalgamated that their tax rates went down.” One of the biggest concerns brought up is that Town employees will be laid off due to consolidation. Boucher wants to assure that every employee from both municipalities will have a spot within the new municipality should consolidation go ahead.
The Town and County have worked together on many community projects over the years, and the purpose of the proposed consolidation is not to downsize or save money but to create more services and efficiency services for the community. Both communities are seeing more and more expectations coming on the plates of municipalities such as accessibility and affordable housing, those are tough challenges for the communities to resolve on their own but coming together as one municipality gives them a better chance of addressing these issues effectively.
There is still no set date for a vote on consolidation.
