Mayor, pollster wrangle over de-amalgamation support
Posted Mar 16, 2010 04:53:58 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Pollster Don Mills and Mayor Peter Kelly are in another war of words over support to break up the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Mills, president of Corporate Research Associates, continues to insist there’s strong support for de-amalgamation while Kelly says people aren’t interested in breaking up the municipality.
In a speech to the Halifax Chamber of Commerce last week, pollster Don Mills said his surveys indicate 54 per cent support to break up HRM into urban and rural units, and 71 per cent support for a plebiscite on the question.
Mayor Kelly says that’s not what he’s hearing from residents.
“During the boundary review we have heard a couple comments with regard to that point of discussion,” he said. “But overwhelmingly, we on a day-to-day basis do not hear discussions on that point.”
He notes the matter’s moot anyway.
“The power, and the point of discussion is not there,” he said. “The [provincial] government to date has said there is no de-amalgamation. There is an onus on us to provide the best that we can with what we have, and we are trying to do that.”
Kelly says de-amalgamating would also cost millions and he doesn’t think residents are prepared to foot that bill.
