Accusations fly over Shelburne boundary review
Posted Oct 26, 2012 06:43:46 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There are a lot of accusations swirling around as Nova Scotia’s Dexter government addresses concerns of splitting the District of Shelburne in half.
The provincial electoral boundary review recommends slicing the district in two, but the government is taking a second look. The report was tabled on the first day of the fall legislative sitting Thursday.
Premier Darrell Dexter said the suggestion to divide the district was originally a Liberal Party idea.
“I’m not suggesting a plot. I’m saying they are the ones who made the suggestion to the electoral boundaries committee,” Dexter told reporters. “They did it in a way, they went to the Bridgewater meetings to do that, so the people in Shelburne didn’t even know this was being proposed.”
About 400 people crowded into a Barrington, N.S., high school gym to complain about the proposed change on Monday.
Justice Minister Ross Landry said government has heard many complaints about the proposal.
“The community of Shelburne really feels slighted that they were not included in this overall decision, and that the decision to divide the community came about as part of the conflict in Yarmouth,” said Landry. “So we said, let’s give them their say.”
Liberal justice critic Michele Samson said the only reason Shelburne is getting the attention of the law amendments committee is because it’s a riding held by Fisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau.
“There’s no question that you have a cabinet minister, right now, who’s facing the prospect of a defeat in the next election, quite possibly regardless of what they were going to do to Shelburne,” said Samson. “I think he’s hearing loud and clear that he’s got a cabinet minister in trouble.”
Belliveau said dispatching the committee is not about him, and all about giving the people of Shelburne County a voice.
Meanwhile, the Tories are calling for Landry’s resignation as attorney general, saying he “inappropriately interfered with the work of the independent, electoral boundaries commission.”
“The minister’s interference was a shameful abuse of his position. It is an embarrassment for our province to have the NDP government deliberately interfering with an independent electoral boundaries commission,” said Progressive Conservative MLA Chris d’Entremont in a media release.
The report recommends splitting Shelburne County at Clyde River.
