Eastern Charlotte Navigates Major Changes With Amalgamation, Feb. 15, 2023

Eastern Charlotte Council held their regular meeting for the month on February 15, 2023 at the Magagaudavic Centre in St. George, New Brunswick, the second meeting of the new council since being elected in November of 2022 to serve the new municipality.  

Chief Administrative Officer Jason Gaudet said work is still happening in regards to navigating the amalgamation for the new municipality, which has only been officially functioning as a new community since the start of 2023 after province-wide local governance reform took place in late 2022.

Eastern Charlotte notably faced one of the dramatic reformations in New Brunswick, with councils dissolving in the Town of St. George and the Village of Blacks Harbour in January 2023 to amalgamate the communities with Back Bay, Bonny River, St. Patrick, Lake Utopia, Pennfield, Seeleys Cove, and Beaver Harbour to form the new Municipality of Eastern Charlotte. Eastern Charlotte now has a population of nearly 8,000 residents making it one of the two most populous communities in Charlotte County after St. Stephen. Due to the dramatic increases in size in geography, population and infrastructure further complicated by a merger of former governments, there are still hiccups along the way to becoming a more cohesive community.

Gaudet said one of the current complications has to do with the impending merger of the former Town of St. George's and former Village of Blacks Harbour's accounting systems, which makes providing detailed financial reports impossible at this time.

"We will be able to provide a breakdown once we merge the the accounting systems. There is no Eastern Charlotte accounting system right now," said Gaudet. "We are still using St. George's system, which is why there is a lack of a detailed accounting report tonight."

Council made strides in creating an important framework for the new municipality of Eastern Charlotte, as well as the new council. Council passed a motion to create a policy for acceptable use of social media for council.

When it came time for members of the public to be able to address Council, a few concerns were brought forth by residents. One resident said there is a lack of work being done to fix potholes in areas outside of Blacks Harbour and St. George despite now being a part of the same municipality. Another resident expressed frustration regarding by-laws in former LSDs that aren't currently don't fall under the municipal by-laws and are therefore enforced by the Southwest New Brunswick Service Commission instead of Council. It will be months before former LSDs that are now in the municipality of Eastern Charlotte have bylaws written to incorporate their areas under the municipal plan. 

Eastern Charlotte Council will meet again on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 7:00pm.