Blacks Harbour's New Council an Exciting Challenge for Mayor

Mayor John Craig of Blacks Harbour says he's thoroughly enjoyed his first seven months as mayor of Blacks Harbour even if there have been a fair share of challenges. 

"I think the our biggest challenge is I had a brand new council, and they're all fairly new and just learning the process--learning how things work and I've been very fortunate the council that I did get was a very good council."

Craig says that despite being a new council, the councillors are enthusiastic to learn about local government and how it operates, which has made the learning curve a lot easier to manage. Their excitement to get involved in their community has made his job significantly working with a new council much more manageable. Craig, in comparison, was formerly the Mayor of the Town of Saint Andrews and has had significant experience working in municipal government. 

"The council in Blacks Harbour is a young group, except for one, and but they're all very good. They want to get things done," says Craig.

The biggest challenge will come later this year in the fall of 2022 when the Village of Blacks Harbour amalgamates with the Town of St. George and both councils will have to decide whether or not to run again with no guaranteed of a seat. The province's Municipal Reform Plan was only unveiled in late fall of 2021 just a few months after municipal elections took place, which meant current councils were unaware that they would be going back to the polls once again in 2022. Mayor Craig says he is definitely planning to run again and expects and exciting election period.