Richmond County Quietly Ends Mayor-Warden Debate

ARICHAT – After nearly five years of debate inside and outside the council chambers, Richmond Municipal Council has quietly closed the door on allowing residents to choose between having a mayor or warden govern county residents at the municipal level.

In May, the municipality’s chief administrative officer (CAO), Don Marchand, confirmed during the regular monthly council session that he had spoken to officials with Nova Scotia’s Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing (DMAH) about the possibility of placing the mayor-or-warden question on the ballot for this fall’s municipal elections. Marchand also pledged to schedule a similar discussion with an Elections Nova Scotia official once that person returned from his vacation in early June.

However, according to the minutes of the two subsequent council meetings posted on the county’s Web site, Marchand did not bring up the issue again. This prompted Telile Community Television to contact the CAO to determine what had come out of the discussions with Elections Nova Scotia and whether council was to pursue the issue further.

In an e-mail to TELILE 24/7 host/producer Adam Cooke dated July 13, Marchand declared that the mayor-warden debate “was dealt with at a previous council meeting,” adding that “we will not be including such a question on the ballot and consider the issue closed.”

When asked whether the issue came to a formal vote at any council meeting held since late May, Marchand said “there was no motion” regarding the mayor-warden scenario and simply added: “It was simply decided that we not proceed. No vote was taken.”

Marchand also declined TELILE 24/7’s request for a formal interview on the matter.

The concept of having a mayor elected at large by Richmond County residents as opposed to a warden chosen from among the elected councillors first arose in 2015, during the consultation process that accompanied the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board’s investigation as to whether Richmond County should shrink from ten municipal districts to eight, seven or five. The board ruled in favour of a five-district council in mid-2015, but left the question of a mayoral system up to the council of the day to discuss.

In January 2016, council voted in favour of replacing its warden system with a mayoral system. However, the vote came too late to meet the deadline set by the NSUARB to have the new system established in time for that October’s municipal elections.

While approximately 70 per cent of Richmond County residents who took part in a survey on the subject in 2018 preferred a mayoral system, multiple councillors questioned the legitimacy of that survey, suggesting that the sample size – roughly 400 people – was too small. With the exception of District Five councillor and former warden Jason MacLean, council then repeatedly rejected calls for a plebiscite on the issue and refused to hold public consultation meetings to get a more accurate reading of residents’ feelings on the mayor-warden debate.