For Immediate Release
Richmond County, NS – At a Special Council meeting on January 31st, Richmond Municipal Council chose communities of interest as a top priority in putting forward a recommendation to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB). The unanimous recommendation to maintain a 5-member Council with minor changes to the boundaries of each district follows a period of public consultation and research that began in July 2022.
“Every eight years, municipalities are required to conduct a study of the boundaries of polling districts in the municipality, their fairness and reasonableness, and the number of councillors,” explained Warden Amanda Mombourquette. “The last boundary review process in 2014 reduced the number of Councillors from ten to five, representing a major shift in the local governance of the County. In making our decision, Council considered all of the input received from surveys, conversations, and information sessions held as recently as just a couple of weeks ago. Public consultation was key to the process and it highlighted for us how important it was to prioritize communities of interest as well as voter parity.”
The boundary review study was led by the consulting firm, Stantec, which also did the review in 2014. A low turnout at early public information sessions and an error in the mapping presented in the November 2022 survey prompted Council to request an extension to the original deadline of December 31, 2022; the UARB agreed and granted an extension to February 15, 2023. This provided Council with additional time to intensify public consultation on the issue and to further explore the impact of achieving the UARB’s voter parity target of +/- 10% of the average electors per district.
“We used the extra time to present and further analyze the data. Voter parity is a fundamental principle in a democratic society but had to be viewed through a lens of what makes the most sense for the people living in each district. It’s about more than just numbers – it’s about ensuring that people are represented and connected to communities that make the most sense, and doing so in a financially responsible way,” noted Warden Mombourquette.
If approved by the UARB, the recommended boundary changes will take effect in the 2024 municipal election and will primarily impact some residents in District 2 in Arichat who will move to District 1, residents of Lennox Passage who will move to District 3, some residents in Thibeauville and Grande Greve who will move to District 4, and residents in Lynches River who will move to District 5. The changes will mean that Isle Madame retains two councillors and that Grande Greve will no longer be split between two districts along the Grande Greve Road which had caused some confusion in the last election. “These are small changes that we feel will make a difference to the constituents in these areas who have expressed feeling disconnected from communities they identify with,” explained Warden Mombourquette. “For now, we believe we have a plan that the UARB will agree to, and hopefully in years to come, our population will start to grow due to the economic opportunities on the horizon, and we’ll be able to justify adding more districts and Councillors to the table,” she said.
Council plans to submit the final report from Stantec along with supporting documentation in early February.
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