Councils for the Town of Antigonish and the County of Antigonish are holding emergency meetings at 6 p.m. on Tuesday evening for another vote on whether or not to reqest special legislation to enable the consolidation of the tow municipal bodies. The meetings will be virtual and the public can register to attend via webinar on the respective web sites for the councils.
Last week, council received a letter from Municipal Affairs minister John Lohr asking for confirmation from the Town of Antigonish and the County of Antigonish that the councils still want to consolidate. Lohr asked both councils to conduct another vote and provide the province with the results no later than February 23.
Antigonish Warden Owen McCarron said the part of the reason for holding the votes tomorrow is the impending boundary review meetings that were set for this week, which McCarron said have been suspended pending the outcome of tomorrow’s vote. The warden said they want to get the information back to the province as soon as possible.
Local community group Let Antigonish Decide announced earlier today that a notice of appeal was filed in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal against the December 5th decision of Justice Timothy Gabriel to deny an application by three Antigonish County residents asking to quash a resolution made by Antigonish County Council to merge with the Town of Antigonish into one municipal unit through special legislation.
McCarron said the county hasn’t received official notice of the appeal but understands an action is pending.