Panel on Inverness County's July 9 Council Meeting

CHNE hosted a panel discussion on Inverness County's latest council meeting with a focus on the northern part of the county. The guests were Chief Administrative Officer Keith MacDonald, District 1 Councillor Alfred Poirier (Chéticamp/Pleasant Bay/Meat Cove) and District 2 Councillor Laurie Cranton (Margaree/St. Joseph).

During the council meeting, Returning Officer Dernie Gillis made a presentation about the possibility of having electronic voting in the upcoming municipal election.

Initially, the municipality had pushed to postpone the election due to COVID-19 concerns. “There’s quite a discussion between the province and the municipality in terms of the impact the pandemic may have on the election,” said CAO Keith MacDonald, “but right now the province has made it known that the election will be proceeding. … Mr. Gillis [provided] some additional updates to council to be ready for the election in terms of voting areas and when and how they will be doing a potential electronic and phone system for voting. Right now, he’s leaning towards having that available for advanced polls only.”

To allow electronic voting, council will have to amend the election by-law. Residents will be able to share their opinion about the proposed changes in a virtual public consultation on August 6th.

Alfred Poirier said the situation still feels uncertain. “I was thinking, if we do get the second wave and if it is in September, well, chances are we may have to change ways of doing this election again,” he said. “But in general, at first, most councillors, myself included, would like to postpone it but at this time, it’s a go and I’m ready to go.”

Road repairs were also discussed during the council meeting. Council went over the province’s decision to repair a few J class roads in the county. It is the only road category where the municipality participates in funding for repairs, covering 50% of the cost. The rest of the roads are maintained by the provincial government.

Councillors present a list of proposed roads to get repairs and the province makes the final decision. “I know a lot of residents get frustrated because they may have a road right next beside this one that looks very similar in makeup and number of residents,” said MacDonald. “But it’s the province that classifies it under another class, either an I or G or whatever it may be. I know it has raised a lot of questions for some communities, why does this road get paved? And so on and so forth, but this is the only program that the municipality has available to it to work with the province to do some additional repaving.”

Four roads were selected in Chéticamp: Marteau Road, Laurie Road, Robin Road and Pere Goirrior Avenue.

There are no J roads in District 2. “However, we do have roads that need a significant upgrading in terms of asphalt and ditching and paving,” Councillor Cranton said. “They had made some good plans for that and then Transportation changed their mind and decided to do a lesser amount. Right now, we have a real push on in the East Margaree, Arsenault Hill area. We’re pushing the provincial government to take a look at that, to put some investment up in those roads on the opposite road of the highway from the Cabot Trail side. It would be all that from Doyle’s Bridge to Belle Cote and Arsenault Hill. Probably, it’s not going to all happen this year but there is some stuff that needs to happen because there are some dangerous situations along that road.”

Council has also approved the creation of a committee to tackle systemic racism. Details about who would be part of the committee and what aspects of the municipality it would look into are yet to be determined. “We’ll probably have to do some consultation around that and then we’ll bring some recommendations back to council for reference and then we’ll go from there,” MacDonald said. "I think the next step would be to engage people around what the priorities of the committee would be and what they want to look at for second and third, and then council would hear recommendations from that committee so they can make some decisions going forward.”