WINDSOR, N.S. — The consolidation process, that will eventually bring the municipality of West Hants and the Town of Windsor into one domain by April 2020, continues to march along, with public meetings being held across the region to get resident’s feedback on what they’d like to see their new council will look like.
The first phase of those meetings dealt with the size of a new combined council, which is the number of councillors that will represent the population of the region. However, the turnout of those meetings has been relatively tepid.
At the Windsor meeting on Feb. 5 at the Hants County War Memorial Community Centre, outside of councillors and officials from both municipal units, approximately 25 people attended.
Kevin Latimer, the transition coordinator with the Windsor West Hants Coordinating Committee, is overseeing the consolidation. He said it’s important to get community feedback at every opportunity.
“An important part of the thinking behind the legislation is that the solution for the new regional government would be made here in Windsor-West Hants,” Latimer said during the meeting in Windsor.
“In the way the process has been designed, it’s going to provide opportunities from beginning to end for citizens to participate in creating this new municipality.”
He said that determining the new council’s size and polling districts, with community input, is an important step in establishing the new municipal government.
An online and mail-in survey is also being circulated to get feedback from residents.
However, the Valley Journal-Advertiser has tested the online Survey and has verified that anyone can answer the survey without having to verify their identity or address, and they can take the survey as many times as they like, which may call into question the validity of the data.
Read More:
- Public meetings, survey planned to determine electoral boundaries for Region of Windsor - West Hants
- Coordinating Committee kicks off consolidation for Windsor, West Hants
- Legislature passes Windsor-West Hants consolidation bill
Latimer said it’s critical to keep the focus on communication with the community as the process continues.
“There’s no script that you can pull off the shelf for something like this that will be successful in every case and everywhere,” he said. “We’re going to try some things here that will be successful and some things that won’t be the first time out. The important thing is to continue to listen and learn from that.”
West Hants Warden Abraham Zebian said during the coordinating committee meeting on Feb. 4 that he was concerned about the lack of outreach in the community regarding the public meetings and the survey, saying he’s hoping the next slate of public meetings will be better advertised.
More provincial funding
The Province of Nova Scotia has also allocated an additional $1 million towards pre-consolidation costs, in addition to the previously announced $500,000 towards the project.
Latimer said it’s another sign that the province is committed to the modernization of municipal government.
“The fact that they’ve come back at this stage, arguably early, with this funding support tells me that they’re committed to this process.”
The funding will be used specifically for initiatives to help the consolidation project along, such as studies, communications staff and other costs.
The coordinating committee is expected to have all of the new funding budgeted for within the next two months, Latimer said.
Future provincial funding to deal with infrastructure or the rebranding needs of a new municipality hasn’t been announced by the province at this point.
“There will be another opportunity for discussion around actual consolidation costs as we move through this,” Latimer said.
“The success of this at the end of the day is going to depend on citizen engagement,” he added.
Public engagement
The focus of the Feb. 5 meeting and the other public meetings up to that point have focused on the size of a new council.
Laurie Card, a resident of Wentworth Creek just outside of Windsor, said he’s personally in favour of a smaller council, which he says would be more efficient.
“I’ve lived the experience, when you get a large group together, it’s hard to get much done,” he said. “By the time everyone expresses their opinion, it takes forever.”
He also said alliances and voting blocs could form if there’s a large number of councillors, but if it’s smaller there might be more need for compromise and working together.
Card said he’s planning to fill out the survey online and attend future public meetings.
Susan Burgess, also from Wentworth Creek, said she’s glad the consolidation process includes public feedback, but she added that she hopes that feedback will actually be considered rather than being tossed aside.
She said she would like to see a future council have between seven and nine councillors, including the mayor.
“The more people you have the more opinions and discussion; it’s much more efficient with fewer people,” she said.
Ken Swan, a resident of Windsor, said he’s happy with the process so far.
He’s planning to come out to the second phase of these meetings as well, which deal with the electoral districts.
“The districts have to be fair with the amount of people,” Swan said. “My personal opinion, I think the town, which has five council (members), should go down to two.”
Swan said he was also in favour of a smaller council.
John Heseltine, director of the governance review with Stantec, said the process is going fairly smoothly so far, but added that he’d like to see higher turnouts at the meetings.
“The past couple of meetings have been getting better, focusing more on the council size issue,” Heseltine said. “Early on there was concern about access to the online survey and other issues.”
In a memo to the coordinating committee on Feb. 4, Heseltine also said that some residents were also more concerned about the potential impacts of amalgamation, rather than with the size of a new council.
He added that response levels to the online survey are generally healthy so far.
The election for the new combined council will take place in March 2020.
Once consolidated in 2020, the Region of Windsor — West Hants will be the fourth regional municipality in Nova Scotia, including Halifax Regional Municipality, Cape Breton Regional Municipality and the Region of Queens Municipality.
Second Phase
The second phase meetings, which will deal with electoral district boundaries are as follows -
Tuesday, March 5, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Three Mile Plains Community Hall
4474 Hwy 1, Three Mile Plains
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Wednesday, March 6, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Hantsport Baptist Church Hall
28 Main St, Hantsport
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Thursday, March 7, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Dr. Arthur Hines Elementary School
75 Musgrave Rd, Summerville
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Wednesday, March 13, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Ardoise Community Recreation Centre
3 School House Rd, Ardoise
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Thursday March 14, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Windsor Community Center
78 Thomas Street
Windsor
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Tuesday March 19, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
snow date
West Hants Municipal Office
76 Morison Road Windsor
