ARICHAT - Nearly a month into a formal consultation of Richmond County residents as to the preferred size of their municipal council, an independent consulting firm is receiving mixed reviews as to constituents' desired number of council districts as well as the performance of the current sitting councillors. 

The Municipality of Richmond County has hired Dartmouth-based Stantec to carry out a wide-ranging survey in response to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB) requirement that all municipalities across the province submit their preferences for council seat numbers, district numbers and municipal boundaries every eight years. The last time such a review was carried out, in 2014, Richmond councillors voted 6-4 to insist that the status quo of ten seats remain the same, but the NSUARB came back the following year with an order to cut the council districts to five seats, which was carried out in the municipal elections of 2016 and 2020. 

While only 79 surveys were completed between July 29 and August 9, they point to a wide variance on the preferred number of council seats for Richmond County. The most popular option, seven seats, was chosen by 42 per cent of survey respondents, while another 21 per cent chose the current five-seat structure. However, small numbers of county residents demanded a return to a 10-seat council, while others suggested that the county could be adequately represented by as few as three councillors. 

In response to a question on the current Richmond council's performance, the most popular response - "average" - was chosen by 37 per cent of survey respondents, while another 22 per cent chose the lowest possible ranking, "poor." 

Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette is hopeful that this early start for the Stantec survey will gain some momentum as the summer turns into the fall, with the consulting firm expected to file a final report to Richmond Municipal Council no later than December, and possibly as early as November. 

Also on this week's edition of TELILE 24/7: Telile station manager Becky Bourinot speaks to Cape Breton-Canso Liberal Member of Parliament about the lay of the land for federal politics as the summer enters its final month, and host Adam Cooke speaks to his fellow member of the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) as administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), Gabrielle Samson. An Isle Madame native who has been working in recent years for the Francophone school board known as the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP) in Pomquet, Antigonish County, Samson is excited to start providing French-language civic-journalism coverage for Telile in September.