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ARICHAT - If figures from the Nova Scotia Early Childhood Development Intervention Services (NSECDIS) are anything to go by, Richmond County is falling behind the rest of the Strait of Canso in preparing its youngest residents to enter the public school system. 

Olivia Melnick, the Strait Area regional director for NSECDIS, delivered a presentation to the most recent regular monthly meeting of Richmond Municipal Council that included several years' worth of data indicating that Richmond County toddlers are frequently at a vulnerable stage when they prepare to enter the Pre-Primary and Grade Primary programs offered within the Strait Regional Centre for Education (SRCE). 

In the categories of physical health and well-being, social comprehension, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication skills and general knowledge, Melnick noted that data collected between 2013 and 2020 frequently puts Richmond County children within the "Vulnerable" and "Vulnerable and At Risk" categories. She added that this occurs in a more pronounced and frequent fashion when weighed against data from the SRCE's other three member counties of Inverness, Guysborough and Antigonish. 

While councillors agreed that these figures were troubling, District One councillor Shawn Samson expressed hope that similar figures could be obtained regarding the students taking francophone education at Arichat's Ecole Beau-Port, which is under the purview of the province-wide French-language school board known as the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP). Melnick pledged to track down these figures as quickly as possible. 

This week's edition of Roundtable also features a separate presentation from the November 28 regular meeting of Richmond Municipal Council by the commanding officer for the Richmond District RCMP, Staff Sgt. Ed Nugent. While his update centered mainly on arrest and ticketing figures for the county, Sgt. Nugent also spoke at length with Richmond officials about his desire to see a new centralized location for RCMP services currently operating out of facilities in St. Peter's and Arichat, with the smaller RCMP office in Potlotek First Nation serving as a satellite office to any new RCMP centre of operations for Richmond County.