To say I’m disappointed is an understatement.
It’s how councillor Ray Strowbridge feels about the response Common Council received after asking the province to consider amalgamating the Greater Saint John region.
In a letter to the city manager, Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle says the city should reach out to neighbouring communities to talk about it.
Strowbridge says the letter is just kicking the ball down the road because the province doesn’t want to touch the issue either.
“You’re not going to win votes with everybody, sometimes you’re going to become unpopular somebody’s going to have to be on the losing side, but you’ve gotta make a decision,” says Strowbridge, “and perhaps the government of New Brunswick doesn’t believe in amalgamation either but they won’t even look at it. They’re passing it back down to the people who can’t work it out.”
Strowbridge says he doesn’t see how we’ll ever get to a place where there may be some consensus around this topic. The mayors of Quispamsis, Rothesay and Grand Bay-Westfield have all firmly stated they’re against amalgamation.
Premier Brian Gallant tells CHSJ News his government has made it clear from the very beginning that any amalgamation has to come from communities.
“We certainly support amalgamations when the community wants it to happen, we think that there are a lot of benefits to amalgamations but with that said, we have to have the community want it,” Gallant says.
“If not, if we were to ever see somebody forced into an amalgamation situation we just don’t think it starts the relationship on the right foot.”
