CBRM councillors vote for status quo when it comes to council size

Cape Breton regional councillors have voted for the status quo when it comes to council size.

A consultant's report recommended cutting the number from 12 councillorsin the Cape Breton Regional Municipalityto six, but the report was based on input from less than one per cent of electors.

Coun.Steve Parsons said constituents told him they would not want to see fewer elected officials.

"One common word kept coming back to me: Steve, this is another form of amalgamation, where our voice will not be equally represented at the council table," he said Thursday during a special meeting held to deal with the topic.

Deputy mayor James Edwards said cutting down on councillors will make the districts too large to cover.

"To go from Mira Gut out to Irish Cove and through Gabarus, that's, I don't even know if they're in the same time zones. That's a huge space, for sure," he said.

Mayor Amanda McDougall said CBRM's population has been growing after years of stagnation and decline and it would not make sense to reduce the number of elected representatives.

The post-tropical storm in September was a prime example of the need for officials spread across the municipality, she said.

"I don't think we could have got through Fiona if we had fewer people, because it was all hands on deck, all day, every day, and people were running non-stop."

Coun. Steve Gillespie said the extremely small sample size from an online survey and a series of public consultation sessions produced data that was useless.

558 respondents

Even though more than half of the people who participated wanted to see council cut down to six elected representatives, Gillespie said council couldn't base any decisions on that.

"The entire thing has been poor," he said. "Five hundred and fifty-eight out of 81,000 people? I mean, if you're not getting five per cent of the population, then this thing belongs in the garbage."

John Heseltine, senior planner with Stantec Consulting Ltd., said the turnout was very low, but that's not uncommon when it comes to discussions on governance.

Public hearing expected in new year

Municipalities across the province have to apply to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board by the end of the month to confirm or change the number of councillors and distribution of voters within districts.

CBRM council voted unanimously to ask the UARB to confirm the current council size.

The board is expected to call for a public hearing sometime in the new year to deal with the request.

MORE TOP STORIES