Antigonish Town Mayor Laurie Boucher said the town and county decided to work with a third
Antigonish Mayor Laurie Boucher
party facilitator on the proposed consolidation of the two municipal governments to get the best results possible from public consultations.
Both the Town of Antigonish and the Municipality of the County of Antigonish picked Brighter Community Planning and Consulting as the facilitator for the upcoming community engagement sessions regarding the proposed consolidation of the town and county of Antigonish into one municipal unit.
Antigonish Mayor Laurie Boucher said the next step is setting up the guiding principles for the project. She said they have to make sure concerns about representation and other matters are addressed before public consultations.
When organizers are content with the guiding principles, they will then go out to the public. The process is expected to take about 23 weeks.
As for why they went with a facilitator, Boucher said both councils want the process to be as transparent as possible. She also said the consulting group has been through this before and knows how to facilitate meetings and make sure they are getting the best response possible from the public