Lower Montague council decides in favour of amalgamation, overruling community vote

The Lower Montague Community Council voted in favour of amalgamation Wednesday night, overruling a public vote on the issue.

In January, residents of Lower Montague, P.E.I., had their say with 95 community members voting against amalgamation while 46 cast ballots in favour. But those 141 votes did not meet the 50 per cent threshold the council set for the vote to be binding.

That meant the council got to decide on Wednesday night what to do and councillors voted in favour of amalgamation — as long as every other community is in as well — in front of a packed room.

The amalgamation of the Three Rivers area has been studied and planned since 2014 and communities are going through rounds of voting by residents and councils on whether to approve the idea or not.

The amalgamation would include the communities of Brudenell, Cardigan, Lorne Valley, Lower Montague, Montague and Valleyfield.

Council studied issue

Council didn't take last night's vote lightly, said Scott Annear, the chair of the Lower Montague Community Council.

"That was council's decision and how they voted," he said. "I can't comment for everybody on council and I think they had researched the whole project and felt confident they were making the right decision."

Annear said he understands the concerns brought forward at Wednesday's meeting, but the council felt going forward with amalgamation was the best option.

"I empathize with some of them, had long discussions with some," he said. "I think our council felt they didn't want us to be left behind with this process or being forced into it on other terms."

Disappointment from some residents

But the result left some residents upset that their vote wasn't mirrored by council. They expressed concern that the rural way of life wouldn't be taken into consideration if amalgamation of the area went through.

Richard Perrot said it was a travesty that the community's vote was overturned. He distributed flyers to the community raising awareness about the result of the amalgamation vote and encouraging residents to show up to the council meeting.

"I've seen elections in this community ... have been lost in this poll by one, two, three votes," he said. "So how does the council justify — when you have this much of a margin that we voted against it — saying you don't have the right because you didn't get enough people to vote?"

He said he was frustrated with the process and they couldn't get straight answers from the council about the vote or what would happen in the end with the amalgamation.

"It's a sad day for Prince Edward Island ... when democracy is thrown out the window," he said. "We might as well have been talking to the birds out there in the trees last night. Before they even sat down they had their mind made up what they were going to do and they went ahead ... against our wishes."

Yvonne Higgins, who was at Wednesday's council vote, said she also thinks council had made a decision on the issue before the meeting last night.

"I'm very disappointed that council didn't listen to the wishes of the people," she said. "Their mind was made up long before we even got there last night. It was a waste of time to even go."

Higgins said she isn't against amalgamation as a concept, but thinks this specific proposal is not right for the rural communities in the area. She thinks they should be coming together with other rural communities because they have different needs than larger communities such as Montague.

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