WELLINGTON, P.E.I. — John Gallant says he has nothing left to lose.
“I’ve already lost everything as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Gallant said he feels nothing can be done to stop the proposed municipal restructuring in the Évangéline region.
Despite that, over 100 people gathered at the Wellington Fire Hall on April 22 to make a plan to try.
On April 15, residents in the region heard a consultant’s proposal to combine Wellington, Abram-Village and rural areas in between into a new Évangéline Rural Municipality.
Many felt their concerns were not heard at the presentation.
Gallant simply wants the amalgamation “stopped dead in its tracks.”
Turns out, 83 others agree. Six wanted to ask more questions.
Taxes, bylaws and the lack of a vote on amalgamation were the sticking points.
“We are getting a plan together and we are not accepting getting pushed around anymore. We’re standing our grounds,” said Gallant.
A committee of seven people was struck, Evangeline Residents Against Amalgamation. It’s made up of five residents and two members of the fire department. They’ve already met to plan their next moves. First off is a meeting with the municipal restructuring committee.
“Everybody in the rural areas is going to get taxed fairly high dollars … and we are getting nothing for our money. The only thing we are buying are rules,” said Gallant.
Currently, residents in the region pay a flat fee of $109 per year for fire services.
The fire department sets the rate at its annual meeting. They vote on it and the government sends them the money, said Desmond Arsenault, Wellington Fire Department communications officer.
Under the proposed new municipality, the residential rate would be 9.5 cents per $100 of assessed value. The commercial rate is 13.5 cents per $100.
For anyone with property assessed at more than $100,000, it adds up to a lot more than the current fire dues.
When Wellington Fire Chief James Ryan asked what would happen to the extra money at the April 15 meeting, the consultants explained that even though it was labelled as ‘fire dues’, it was actually a municipality tax.
That takes away the fire department’s transparency, said Arsenault.
“That scares me,” he said. “Nobody knows how much of that money is coming to us… in the future all the money will go to the village and we’ll be like the little kid waiting for an allowance.”
Many of the people at the fire hall were worried potential new bylaws would curtail their activities or stop them from keeping animals.
“We live there because of the way of life to avoid these taxes. The municipal bylaws and all this stuff, that’s not what we stand for. We want the country life, without being told how it’s going to be and getting taxes paid and nothing in return,” said John Gallant.
Local MLA Sonny Gallant was on hand to add what information he could from the province.
“Any bylaws that are going to be made will be no more stringent than the bylaws of the province. And that’s what you fall under now are the bylaws for un-incorporated areas… and if it was to go that way, you’ll have representation from your area,” the MLA said.
Gallant had checked the Hansard, the transcript of what’s said in the Legislature and added: “The government is not going to step in and force anybody to amalgamate. It’s driven by the people in the community and in the municipalities.”
Sonny Gallant called the fire hall meeting a good example of democracy. He was the one to advise John Gallant to form a committee and meet with the group in favour of amalgamation to make their views known.
“The councils of both municipalities didn’t do anything in bad faith,” said MLA Gallant. “They just thought it might be a good idea to explore this. In the act, there’s money from the government for municipalities to do that exploration…I don’t think they really want to divide the community.”
@AlisonEBC
