The Conseil acadien de Par-en-Bas (CAPEB) is expressing its dissatisfaction with the revised interim report on boundaries for Nova Scotia’s provincial electoral districts.
In a news release issued Monday afternoon, CAPEB says it is upset that the commission chose to revise its first interim report, which would have allowed the continued existence of Argyle as a riding.
“This first report made a very good case why minority ridings should continue to exist in Nova Scotia,” CAPEB said in the release. “The new report serves only to dilute the percentage of the Acadian population within the new proposed ridings of Yarmouth-Argyle, Clare-Yarmouth and Cape Breton Southwest, which significantly reduces the chances of Acadians electing one of their own to the legislature; an assimilated Acadian character.”
Even though CAPEB is pleased that the commission will hold a public meeting in Clare as part of its second round of consultation, it is “very displeased” that no session will be held in the Municipality of Argyle.
The commission is scheduled to hold a public meeting Aug. 13 at the Mariners Centre in Yarmouth and Aug. 14 at Université Sainte-Anne in Church Point.
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Also, the commission will be holding simultaneous meetings on two evenings, meaning not all members of the commission will hear first-hand what Nova Scotians have to say, CAPEB says.
According to a schedule of public meetings posted online on the commission's website, at the same time on the same evening that public consultations sessions are being held in Yarmouth and Church Point, meetings are also taking place in Halifax and Bridgewater. whereas other meetings being held in Port Hawkesbury, Westville, Sydney and Dartmouth see only one meeting happening on each of those nights.
“CAPEB is even more displeased with the government of Nova Scotia who chose to declare as null and void the commission’s first interim report,” CAPEB said in its media release. “This unprecedented intervention by the attorney general takes away any perception that the commission is indeed independent."CAPEB, the release continues, “completely endorses FANE (Acadian federation) in its legal actions against the Province of Nova Scotia in order to maintain the existing Acadian ridings of Argyle, Clare and Richmond.”
