Province ending supervision of troubled municipality
Reinstatement of council on May 15 comes a couple weeks after next week's byelection puts a new mayor in place
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After almost 10 months of provincial supervision, the suspended council of Lakeland Ridges in western New Brunswick will be reinstated on May 15.
The province announced the long-awaited move late Thursday afternoon.
The municipality has been in control of a provincially appointed supervisor since the end of July. A report months later – that was initially withheld from the public – finally detailed why the province stepped in. It painted a picture of dysfunction, finger-pointing, bickering, secret cliques and hoarding of information during the council’s first six months in office.
In November, the province said it was aiming to restore the elected council by the end of February or early March, but trouble appeared to continue behind the scenes as the mayor and two councillors stepped down earlier this year, saying they were frustrated with the continued dysfunction.
Further frustrations lingered into the spring as suspended councillors complained they were not in communication with the supervisor and felt the process was stalled.
In Thursday’s announcement, Local Government Minister Glen Savoie thanked the three supervisors who ran the municipality over the past 10 months – Steven Manuel, Greg Lutes and Michael Blaney – for their leadership and work in overseeing the municipality’s daily operations and encouraged the council to “fully address past issues and engage in the transition services being offered. This new path forward is a step in the right direction.”
The reinstatement of council on May 15 is a couple of weeks after the May 6 byelections that will see the election of a new mayor and one of the two vacated council seats.
Eric Cummings, Leonard Foster and Lance Graham are running for mayor. Dustin Craig Buckingham claimed one of the vacant council seats by acclamation, while the remaining council seat will remain open until November byelections.
Department of Local Government spokesperson Clarissa Andersen said the decision to reinstate council was made in advance of the byelection to allow the new council the opportunity to regain operations of the local government.
The news of the reinstatement was welcomed by remaining councillors, though Patricia Budd said she thought the process was mostly unnecessary.
“We were suspended because we had no clerk and could have been reinstated last September when staff returned to work,” she wrote in an email. “I do not think it was necessary to create such a large expense for the taxpayers of this province.”
But she did add she was “really glad to be able to get back to work.”
That was echoed by other councillors, such as Chris Yerxa, who said he is “looking forward” to working with the new mayor and councilor after “a long and exhausting 200 plus days,” and Ross Stairs, who serves as deputy mayor and who said the council is “excited to get back to doing what we were elected to do.”
Andersen said officials from the department will meet with the mayor-elect, acclaimed councillor, and remaining council members to discuss the transition training being offered.
She said the department will assume the costs associated with the training.
The councillors who resigned – Michael Furrow and Mark Grant – would not comment, and the former mayor, Tanya Cloutier, would only say she wished “the mayor and council of Lakeland Ridges success in their future governing the people of our municipality.”
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