St. George Councillor Speaks Out Against Amalgamation

New Brunswick is currently preparing for province-wide amalgamation of local governments, which will culminate in municipal elections in November 2022. For the Town of St. George, that means amalgamating with Blacks Harbour, Back Bay, Bonny River, St. Patrick, Utopia, Pennfield, Seeyles Cove, are Beaver Harbour are merging to become one district known as Eastern Charlotte. The current town council will be completed dissolved in the fall with a full election required for the new district despite the current council only being elected in May 2021.

"In regards to our council, which was formed last May: it takes some time to get moving and, in December, we were given a pink slip to tell us that we will be done by the end of this year," said Council Sam Rubin near the end of the regular June 2022 council meeting for the Town of St. George. 

Rubin is frustrated that even though the current council has had a year in office, amalgamation has left them with their hands tied and feeling unable to make impactful decisions for the community. 

"I'm on the transitional advisory committee," said Rubin with regards to the role he is currently doing to help the current council and community adapt amalgamation. "Council might not be aware that, as we move forward, we are not supposed to absorb anymore debt to our community unless the province approves it, and fortunately we haven't borrowed any money. The debt we currently have is all we are going into bring into amalgamation even though there are more projects we'd like to take on. The transition committee has a job to do: it's a go-between between the community and the province. Not everybody on the committee is happy about amalgamation, but it's going, and we are here to help the transition. You might not have heard me say anything about amalgamation yet, but I'm not for it."