Region of Queens councillors chose District 2 Coun. Maddie Charlton on Tuesday as the region’s deputy mayor. (Rick Conrad photo)
District 2 Coun. Maddie Charlton is the new deputy mayor for the Region of Queens.
Councillors voted for Charlton, who was the only nominee, at Tuesday’s meeting, the first since the Oct. 19 municipal election.
Charlton’s term as deputy mayor is for two years. She won’t get a raise, though she will be compensated at the mayor’s rate of pay while she acts as mayor.
Scott Christian presided over his first council meeting as the region’s new mayor. Charlton was re-elected to council, as were Jack Fancy and Vicki Amirault. New councillors are Courtney Wentzell, Stewart Jenkins, Wanda Carver and Roberta Roy.
Region of Queens councillors make $20,865 annually, while the mayor makes $41,730.
Scott Christian, mayor of the Region of Queens, is preparing for the newly elected council’s first meeting. (Rick Conrad photo)
Queens County residents can expect more than just new faces around the table as regional council meets Tuesday, for the first time since the October election.
Region of Queens Mayor Scott Christian says people will also notice changes in how meetings are run. He says they’ll be a little less formal, and give councillors more opportunity to address residents’ concerns.
“Where we can, making it feel more approachable and trying to generate good, fulsome conversation,” Christian told QCCR in an interview.
“So a little less formal, a little more conversational with the hope of making it more engaging for the public and to really foster good conversation around the table.”
One of the first issues they’ll tackle on Tuesday is the new outdoor pool at Queens Place Emera Centre. In his campaign for mayor, Christian said he wants the pool to be a year-round, indoor facility.
The region broke ground on the new pool on Oct. 4. The $8-million structure is slated to be open by 2026.
Christian says he and the rest of council will discuss the region’s options if councillors eventually decide to upgrade the project.
“We haven’t had an apportuity as a council to debate this and I look forward to hearing what my fellow members of council, what their perspectives are on it,” he said.
“But at this stage, the motion will just be related to having better information. From my perspecitve, that’s the first appropriate step, is to have a complete understanding about if we go down that path what are we getting ourselves into, but also what opportunites are there, what willingness is there on part of the various funders at the table and the construction company who’s been engaged to pursue a shift in scope?”
Before becoming mayor, Christian was a private and public sector consultant. He was elected in a tight race in the Oct. 19 election with former Queens County educator Terry Doucette.
The other new faces on council are Roberta Roy, Courtney Wentzell, Wanda Carver and Stewart Jenkins. They’ll be joining re-elected councillors Maddie Charlton, Jack Fancy and Vicki Amirault.
Christian says he’ll be working as mayor full time. And he admits he has a lot to learn.
But he says he and the rest of council have had a good start, thanks to guidance from CAO Cody Joudry and a productive two-day training and orientation session in Halifax last week.
“What I heard loud and clear throughout the campaign was a desire to see our council working effectively together. I think that we’ve already made some really great strides. I’ve had conversations with each and every member of the council and sought to hear them out. … I think we made some really positive strides as a group in terms of coming together while we were in Halifax. … And another thing too is working effectively with other members of the community, with other organizations, and other orders of government, and what I hear is a real comitment across the team to start to do those things.”
Christian says there’s a lot of work to be done. But he also says that with a staffing crunch at the region, he and the rest of council need to be patient.
“We as a council need to be realistic in terms of the capacity of the staff right now to execute on some of the work that is important. The whole team has a real commitment to addressing the priority concerns in the community, but we need to do it in a way that makes sense.”
Ultimately, Christian says he hopes he and the rest of council can get the public more involved and engaged in the region’s business.
“We are accountable to the pepole of Queens and we need to make sure that they are well informed and that they have access to the decisions that we’ve made and the conversations we’ve had in reaching those deicsions.”
The new Region of Queens council meets Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. at council chambers on White Point Road. You can see the agenda here.
Region of Queens councillors Jack Fancy, David Brown and Vicki Amirault have declared their intentions for October’s municipal election. (Rick Conrad)
With less than three months to go before October’s municipal election, incumbents and former councillors in Queens County are declaring their intentions.
So far, three of the seven sitting councillors have said they won’t run again. Three others have declared they will run again.
District 1 Coun. Kevin Muise could not be reached. And Mayor Darlene Norman hasn’t yet announced her plans.
District 6 Coun. David Brown is one of the councillors who won’t be reoffering. District 2 Coun. Ralph Gidney and District 7 Coun. Carl Hawkes are the others. Gidney’s area will be changed to District 3. Former councillor Susan MacLeod, who placed second in the 2020 mayor’s race, will be running to replace Gidney.
Brown told QCCR that he feels he’s done what he can for his constituents. He represents the areas around Port Medway, Mill Village, Greenfield and Labelle. A newcomer to municipal politics in the 2020 election, he beat Jason Croft by about 130 votes.
“I feel like I’ve accomplished as much as I can accomplish in council and I’m not really happy with the process, so I’m looking at different avenues for moving on,” he said. “I just feel like we’re a municipal council, but we don’t govern like a municipal council. We still govern like a town council.
“It seems like everything we do is centred around Brooklyn, Liverpool and Milton and any time we try to get anything done outside of that core, it’s a struggle.”
He said he wasn’t criticizing his fellow councillors or municipal staff. And he didn’t want to provide examples of some of the struggles he’s had.
But he said he feels the Liverpool area is over-represented on council, with five councillors who have some part of their district in Liverpool, Milton or Brooklyn. With the redrawn boundaries, that’s down to four.
“Whoever goes into council from rural areas is just going to have to fight harder to try to get their areas recognized. Maybe if councilors coming in from Liverpool, Brooklyn, Milton, realize that they’re not funding 100 per cent of the cost of what happens in Queens County, but they’re expecting 100 per cent of the expenditures that are happening in Queens County, it’s not a fair and equitable solution for anybody.”
Brown said he was also frustrated with some of the criticism he’s received online and in person since he became councillor. He said he welcomes feedback from constituents, but he said sometimes it goes too far.
“There’s a lot of anger with people, in the public. They seem to think that because you’re a public figure they can say whatever they want to you. And council is not a high-paid position to put up with the amount of hours and the abuse that we’ve been taking from some people. So I’m just not interested in doing another four years of that.”
“I’m happy with what I did. I think council has done the best job that they could for the most people. It’s just most of the work is done in the centre of town and that frustrates me.”
District 3 Coun. Maddie Charlton will be trying for a second term. She joins District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault and District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy, who have announced they will seek re-election.
Because of the boundary changes, Charlton will be running in District 2 this time. But it’s essentially the same area as she represents now in District 3, with the addition of part of White Point Road.
Amirault will still run in District 4, but her area now includes Danesville and East Port Medway. It also has less of Brooklyn.
And Fancy, who represents the Milton area, has said he plans to run in District 7, which is where he grew up. That area includes much of north Queens, including Caledonia and Kejimkujik National Park.
In 2020, Charlton made history at age 29 as the youngest person elected to Region of Queens council.
She told QCCR that she’s enjoyed her past four years in municipal politics.
“Although it has certainly come with challenges,” she said.
“I have certainly learned a lot over these last four years and I really think that younger representation at the council table is important.”
Along with bringing a more youthful perspective, she says she’s proud she’s been able to advocate for better access to council meetings for the public. She pushed for a regular evening meeting to make it easier for people to attend, as well as the upgrades necessary to livestream meetings.
Charlton says she believes that council’s communication with the public has improved.
“That was one of things that as a resident before I ran was something that was really obvious there was a bit of a disconnect there. There certainly have been improvements. And those are some that I’m really proud of as well. Besides the standing evening council meetings, I championed audio and video upgrades because people couldn’t hear when they tuned into the meetings. And I think it’s really important that residents can do that and access those meetings and listen to those meetings if they can’t be in the room. So I would say that’s still not perfect. But I think it has gotten better.”
Charlton said that communication breakdowns were partially responsible for the controversies over a new library.
“I would say that we need to slow down before we speed up. … We hit the gas too fast and different information was evolving over cost and I think if we would have just slowed down, we could have pieced things together in a more sensible way to then confidently make a plan that we could endorse going forward.”
David Brown says he regrets that council didn’t commit to a new library. They decided instead to move the library, at least temporarily, to the business development centre on White Point Road.
“I would have liked to have seen a library built. Having an actual brick and mortar standalone library built and not having that happen and the way the process worked out was one of my biggest frustrations in the last term.”
Charlton says that if she’s re-elected, she’d like to advocate for more youth programming and recreational opportunities. And she says she hopes other young women take a crack at council this time around.
Brown says he’s not sure what he’ll do next, but he’s going to enjoy his free time. His advice for people who want to run for council? Do your homework and be prepared to stick up for your district.
“Just to be prepared it’s not going to be the happy smiley place that you think it’s going to be,” he says.
“You’re in for a fight every day. If you want to get your area recognized and you want an equitable amount of expenditures for all areas of the county, it’s not going to go smoothly. There’s a fight involved with it. There’s a lot of argument. You have to do your research, know the policies, know what you want going in and know what your consittunts want going in because you’re representing those constituents, you’re not representing your own personal interests. … You have to know what all those constituents want so you can make the best decision for the most people.”
The municipal election is Oct. 19. This year, for the first time, Queens County voters will be able to vote in person or online.
Region of Queens councillors want a staff report on installing traffic lights at the three-way stop at Main and Market Streets in downtown Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)
Queens County pedestrians and motorists won’t see orange crosswalk flags at a busy intersection in downtown Liverpool, but they could see a return of traffic lights.
Region of Queens councillors on Tuesday voted against installing the flags at the three-way stop at Main and Market streets. But they did support getting a staff report on having full traffic lights at that intersection.
The area did have traffic lights decades ago, until they were damaged by a transport truck, and taken down.
Safety concerns have long been an issue at Main and Market streets. In 2015, regional councillors commissioned a study by Insight Traffic Engineering that found traffic control wasn’t an issue and recommended minor changes.
In 2019, councillors rejected installing pedestrian-controlled crosswalk lights at a cost of $27,000.
But a collision in January which sent a 79-year-old woman to hospital rekindled concern in the community about safety at that intersection.
Councillors asked staff to come back with options about how to make that intersection safer. Adam Grant, the region’s director of engineering and public works, said in April that there is no evidence crosswalk flags would help. And he said pedestrian-controlled lights at that intersection could interrupt traffic flow and create more problems. He said it’s unusual to have the lights at a three-way stop.
The Town of Mahone Bay installed an all-way stop in 2021 near Saltbox Brewery on its Main Street. It also has flashing red lights and orange crosswalk flags for pedestrian use.
The all-way stop in Mahone Bay by Saltbox Brewery. (Google Streetview)
Even though councillors on Tuesday rejected the flags, they said action needs to be taken to make Main and Market intersection safer.
District 2 Coun. Maddie Charlton said that it will only get busier with the new Queens Manor, the apartment building planned off Bristol Avenue and the planned Mount Pleasant development expected to house up to 1,200 people.
Charlton asked staff for the traffic light report.
“When I look around at other communities that have these three-way intersections, they have lights. And so I think it’s important that we understand what the criteria (are) for those lights. If another option has presented itself that we can consider, I think that would be helpful to have. We need something that tells us how we could get those traffic lights, what the criteria is, so if we’re not there yet, when can we pull the trigger on them.”
District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault said it’s time for the region to address the problem.
“One person getting hit there is too many, and it’s been many over the years. So I think we really need to look into this and go forward on this and not stall so much on this problem. I know it’s been years and years, but I think we need to find a way forward.”
District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy said the flags would have been better than nothing. And he said he also supports pedestrian-controlled lights.
“There’s always going to be issues with each thing, but I believe the good outweighs the bad with this. Especially, what we’re aiming for right now is doing nothing. And I don’t think doing nothing is the answer.”
District 6 Coun. David Brown said enforcement and education would resolve a lot of safety issues.
“The lights won’t stop cars, the lines on the pavement won’t stop cars. You have to look for yourself and guard your safety. We’ve got a lot of development coming and I’d like to know what would trigger a need for (traffic) lights at that intereseciton because I think the stop control works well now if we enforce it.”
Mayor Darlene Norman said that when the traffic lights were operating at that intersection years ago, it seemed to help.
On Tuesday, councillors also approved $1,000 to study the feasibility of reducing the speed limit on Main Street from School Street to Riverside Drive, near Fort Point Lighthouse Park.
Residents submitted a petition to council in November, asking them to improve traffic safety in the area by lowering the speed limit and installing an all-way stop at Main and School streets.
Melissa Thiele-Smale, treasurer of the Brooklyn Recreation Committee, spoke to Queens regional council in January. (Region of Queens YouTube channel)
The Brooklyn Recreation Committee will be reimbursed $1,150 by the Region of Queens for the cost of a financial review.
In 2023, the committee was granted a community area rate of four cents per $100 of assessment to fund its operations. The rate provides $32,000 in revenue.
Certain community groups can apply to the region to levy an area rate on their behalf. The group sets a proposed rate, which is calculated at cents per $100 of assessment or a lump sum.
An area rate request is subject to public consultation and a non-binding vote by those in the communities served by the group.
Queens is one of the only municipalities in Nova Scotia to offer an area rate to community groups to cover expenses. Other municipalities levy rates for assets owned by the municipality.
“There are many who apply different rates to different areas for different purposes. These rates are used to cover costs that are more specific to an area such as: fire protection based on fire service area, sidewalks, local recreation facilities, etc.,” Joanne Veinotte, director of corporate services, said in her Jan. 9 report to council.
“Staff could identify very few municipal units that use this method to support community groups that operate independently from the municipal units.”
The region changed its community area rate policy on Jan. 23, and the financial reporting requirements for community groups.
Under the old policy, groups had to submit a financial review by a qualified chartered public accountant.
In the new policy, only those generating revenue over $50,000 have to submit a financial review. Those groups generating revenue from the area rate over $100,000 must submit audited financial statements.
The Brooklyn Recreation Committee had a financial review done by Belliveau Veinotte, which cost $1,150. District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault asked council at their Jan. 9 meeting to consider reimbursing that cost.
Councillors voted on the motion at this week’s meeting. It passed by a vote of 5 to 3.
Some councillors were concerned that the group knew it would have to pay for the financial review before the policy changed, and that taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook.
Region of Queens CAO Cody Joudry and Mayor Darlene Norman before Tuesday’s council meeting. (Rick Conrad photo)
Library users in Liverpool will be checking out books in a new location by the end of the year.
Region of Queens councillors voted Tuesday night to move the Thomas H. Raddall library to the Liverpool Business Development Centre until a permanent site can be found and built.
The Global Empire call centre and Belliveau Veinotte accountants are the current tenants at the building, just off the White Point Road. The municipality owns the building.
The call centre currently uses about 18,000 square feet of the space, while Belliveau Veinotte leases 4,800. That leaves about 9,200 square feet for the library’s temporary location.
First, though, regional staff have to renovate to add washrooms and program rooms and to accommodate the library’s collection. The plan is to move the library there before the end of the current lease in December. It’s currently in the Rossignol Centre in downtown Liverpool, which is for sale.
Susan DeChamp, who was one of three members of the region’s library steering committee, was at the council meeting Tuesday evening. She said it’s probably the best option for now.
“So for what we have to work with, it’s not a bad blank slate,” she said in an interview after the meeting. “There is still the issue of some of our walking people getting to it. … There is some concern that library usage could suffer a bit for that. We need a library and this is our best option at this point.”
Finding a new home for the library has been fraught with delays and controversy since 2022, when the region allocated $3 million from an unexpected budget surplus to its construction. CAO Cody Joudry says a new library would likely cost much more than that.
The library steering committee twice recommended a site near Queens Place Emera Centre. Council rejected it the first time but decided to accept the recommendation a second time.
But councillors nixed that plan once more when they learned that connecting the site to existing road and infrastructure would cost close to a million dollars.
And then at a December meeting, after hearing from residents, councillors rejected a staff recommendation to move the library to the call centre building permanently.
District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault, who chaired the library committee but voted against its recommendations, said Tuesday it’s a good solution to ensure library services continue.
“This has been a long process to say the least,” Amirault said. “It’s been quite a process but I just think we need to overhaul a little bit and move on.”
The vote on the temporary location was not unanimous. Mayor Darlene Norman voted against it. She said the region could have bought the building where the library is now, and keep it there until a developer could be found to put housing in that location.
“However, it was not a wish of council to do that,” she said.
“One would hope that during that refit that the CEO of the library and the library staff are consulted very closely and that we’re simply not creating office space, because it’s my feeling that once the library is there, the library will stay there. It would be very difficult for a future council to justify a million plus on renovation and then flip around to build a new library.”
CAO Cody Joudry estimates the work on the call centre will cost from $1.05 to $1.26 million. He says that he’ll work with the library’s CEO to ensure users and the rest of the community are consulted on the design and renovation of the space.
He said that with this council’s term ending in October, it would be difficult to complete consultation, site selection, design and tendering before then. Joudry suggests letting a newly elected council develop a long-term plan for the library.
But some councillors want the process to begin before a new council is elected in October.
District 6 Coun. David Brown said he wants public consultation to “start sooner rather than later” so that the incoming council will have something to work with.
Betsy Hartt and Bob Iuliucci, owners of Bear Cove Resources, will make an oral presentation at the upcoming Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board hearing in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad photo)
By Rick Conrad
UPDATE 9:25 p.m. Tuesday
The Nova Scotia Aquaculture Review Board hearing into a proposed fish farm expansion in Liverpool Bay has been delayed until further notice, the board posted on its website Tuesday night.
“The hearing scheduled for March 4-8, 2024, in Liverpool, has been adjourned until further notice,” the notice reads. “New dates will be announced here once these have been determined by the board.”
No reason was given. Elsewhere on the board’s site, chairwoman Jean McKenna’s name has been removed. The new chairman is Tim Cranston, a member of the board and a lawyer “with 20 years+ experience as in-house counsel for two award-winning marine bio-tech companies.”
QCCR has contacted the board with questions about McKenna’s status and the hearing delay.
Meanwhile, more than 150 individuals, businesses and other groups had their comments on the proposed fish farm expansion accepted by the board.
Kelly Cove Salmon, which is owned by Cooke Aquaculture, has applied to expand its operations near Coffin Island and to add two new sites off Brooklyn and Mersey Point.
If successful, Kelly Cove’s operation would grow to 60 pens from its current 14. It would mean about 1.8 million salmon would be farmed in the bay, compared to the current estimated 400,000. Farmed trout would also be added at Coffin Island.
In addition to the written submissions and oral presentations from the public, five groups have been granted intervenor status: Protect Liverpool Bay, the Region of Queens, the Brooklyn Marina, a group of 23 lobster fishermen, and Kwilmu’kw Maw-Klusuaqn, which is representing the Acadia First Nation.
People had until Feb. 12 to submit their comments or ask to make an oral presentation at the hearings.
Seven people or groups are giving oral presentations, including Bear Cove Resources Storm-cast Seaweed in East Berlin, owned by Bob Iuliucci and Betsy Hartt.
They say they’re worried about the effects of a four-fold increase in salmon and trout farming in the area.
“There’s absolutely no way (the farms are) going to withstand an easterly wind that can bring waves of 10 metres,” Iuliucci said Tuesday in an interview.
“We’ve had storm events (here), in one storm event the shoreline went back about five metres. … A net full of fish, it’s hopeless, it would be really unfortunate for everybody.”
Iuliucci says he’s also worried about what would happen if the new farm sites get caught up in tidal surges, especially given the current problems with flooding at Centennial Park on the Liverpool waterfront.
“We have the park inundated on a regular basis. So now we’re gonna have hundreds of thousands of fish stranded as well and on people’s properties.”
Hartt says their customers ask about whether their compost is affected by the current operation.
“The more their gear gets tossed around, the more their gear gets included in the seaweed we collect. And we get customers asking us questions already. ‘Does the fish farm affect the seaweed? Does that mean that I’m going to get microplastics in the seaweed compost I’m buying from you?’ I let them know at this stage, no. But when you consider the magnification of that project, that is going to be a concern.”
Most of the public feedback the review board received was in written submissions. It accepted 146 letters, which are published on its website.
Most of those written submissions oppose Kelly Cove’s application. Twelve support it. Among the supporters are the mayor of Shelburne and businesses who have done business with Cooke.
But several other submissions were rejected by the independent board.
That included two of the area’s politicians. According to a post on the Social Politics Facebook page, Queens MLA Kim Masland had her letter rejected because the board said it must be free of “appearance of any possible influence” by elected officials.
Masland has spoken out against the project. In her letter, posted on her Facebook page, she said the expansion would harm the environment, tourism, the lobster fishery and residents’ general enjoyment of Beach Meadows Beach.
Masland could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Premier Tim Houston also came out against the project last week, during a luncheon in Liverpool organized by the South Queens Chamber of Commerce.
The board also rejected submissions from people who were listed as a member of one of the intervenor groups. It ruled that their interests were already being represented.
Region of Queens District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault’s area includes Brooklyn and Beach Meadows. She was one of those whose letter was rejected, and she was also told she could not make a presentation at the hearings, because she is already represented by the Region of Queens as an intervenor.
“I’m not very happy about it. I’m the one that’s out and about in the community and I’m the one that’s hearing from my constituents and I believe I should be able to speak on their behalf.
“I have not heard from anybody yet that is in favour of this expansion.”
The proposed site for the new library at Queens Place lies at the end of the driveway beside the sledding hill. Photo Ed Halverson
Region of Queens Council has cancelled the construction of a new library near Queens Place.
In a recorded 5-3 vote, Councillors Amirault, Charlton, Fancy, Gidney and Muise voted not to build the library at that location, while Mayor Norman and Councillors Brown and Hawkes voted to go ahead.
In August 2022 council agreed to sell the land at Queens Crossing (the name of the site containing Queens Place, the Best Western Hotel, the skatepark, the planned long-term care home and the proposed library site) to the Queens Care Society for $2 per square foot.
The 479,000 square feet of land would bring in roughly $960,000, which is about what public works staff estimate it would cost to build a road, sidewalks and water infrastructure out to the end of the cul-de-sac to accommodate the library and long-term care home.
Historically, council has reinvested any proceeds from the sale of land on that site back into infrastructure at Queens Crossing.
Charlton says she supports the construction of a new long-term care home, but council was never asked if they wanted to spend that money and since it isn’t a policy, this council is not bound by the decisions of previous councils.
“We did not discuss a road extension when we agreed to sell the land,” said Charlton. “We were selling the land because it was already serviced for water and sewer to the point where it was required.”
Mayor Darlene Norman says if the municipality doesn’t cover the cost of extending these services it will need to come from the Queens Care Society’s construction budget.
“The whole idea that we would not show our support for this amazing facility is beyond comprehensible to me,” said Norman.
Councillor Vicki Amirault chairs the library site selection committee and voted against the committee’s recommendation.
The committee was tasked by council with finding the best location to build a new library.
Councillor Amirault was contacted to provide a comment for this story but did not reply before publication.
Council is now looking at options to move the library closer to the Queens Place Emera Centre.
They have requested costed studies for two different library concepts.
One will determine the price of a stand-alone library beside Queens Place; the other would examine building an extension on the Centre.
CAO Chris McNeill told council he was warned by the project manager an extension would be more costly.
McNeill says any extension on Queens Place would have to look at the existing capacity of the building to handle additional demands on electricity, heating and water supply among other issues.
McNeill also informed council the two studies could cost in the range of $200,000.
In the meantime, council is aware of the precarious situation the Thomas H Raddall Library finds itself.
In addition to infrastructure issues the building is currently up for sale.
Council is suggesting the library find alternative locations where they could relocate temporarily until a new permanent location can be built.
A notice indicating they had less than 24 hours to claim their mail came as a surprise to some residents of Brooklyn last week.
Canada Post left the notices in post boxes at the Brooklyn office Tuesday October 11 and before noon the next morning, the mailboxes were cleaned out.
In an e-mail, a spokesperson for Canada Post said, “that due to reasons beyond our control, we were notified that the Brooklyn Post Office would close at end of day Wednesday, October 12. Customers were notified of the closure on Tuesday, October 11 by letter and flyers posted on-site.”
Letter sent by Canada Post to Brooklyn residents. Photo courtesy Vicki Amirault
The post office was in the Wa-Su-Wek building on Hillside Road and operated by one of their staff members.
Board member Grace Conrad says they just couldn’t afford to operate the postal outlet any longer.
“One person is supposed to be doing that plus being able to look after some of the Wa-Su-Wek stuff,” said Conrad. “We don’t actually get enough money from [the] post office, or whatever, to pay a worker. We’re only getting a little bit of money.”
Conrad says the Wa-Su-Wek board members met Friday October 7th and decided they couldn’t continue to operate the post office at a loss.
She contacted Canada Post that day to inform them of the board’s decision.
The board was prepared to continue running the postal service for 30 to 60 days to give Canada Post time to come up with an alternative method of delivery.
Conrad was surprised when a postal worker showed up at 10:00am on Wednesday and cleared out the mail.
Anyone with an outside post box is unaffected by the change while roughly 300 people who used the interior boxes, as well as those looking to buy stamps or collect larger parcels now need to travel to Liverpool for postal service.
District 4 Councillor Vicki Amirault has been working to get answers for her constituents since the notices went out.
She says it’s not just the 5 km drive to Liverpool that is a problem for Brooklyn residents.
“They are very upset. It’s the drive and as you know, our parking spaces are very limited in front of the Liverpool post office,” said Amirault. “So, if those parking spaces are full that means they either have to park in back of the Royal Bank or they have to park down in the parking lot and walk. It’s very inconvenient.”
Canada Post will be installing 19 community mailboxes on the Wa-Su-Wek property to service the 300 customers who have been displaced.
While that solves the problem of getting letters and smaller parcels to Brooklyn residents Amirault is concerned moving services to Liverpool could cause other issues.
“It’s creating confusion for Liverpool post office workers as well. They have taken on a lot of extra work. And the residents of Liverpool as well, there’s only so many workers so their mail is going to slow down, probably, as well,” said Amirault.
The Canada Post spokesperson says the community mailboxes have been ordered and will be installed as soon as possible.
The only concrete action taken at the latest Region of Queens council meeting was the decision to create a pool committee.
Councillors Jack Fancy and Vicki Amirault will be joined by two members of the Queens Community Aquatic Society and two residents at large on the six-person panel.
However, Mayor Darlene Norman says it still isn’t clear what responsibilities the committee will have.
“What they’re going to talk about? I don’t know. Maybe they can discuss how to encourage more people to become lifeguards or other things, because they really have no authority to make decisions,” said Norman. “We’ll just see how it goes.”
Since then, some members of council and the Queens Community Aquatic Society have been pushing to tie the new pool to the development of a new library.
The mayor says municipal staff time is at a premium right now and no one is available to sit on the committee and provide resources as they are already working on several other major projects in the community.
“Our engineering and our CAO and our planner, they’re very involved with the building of the new Queens Manor, highly involved with that. We’ve got some major street work going on,” said Norman. “We’re, like many municipal units, we’re struggling with our staff shortage numbers. We don’t have enough labourers in our engineering department.”
Norman says staff is fully prepared to take the on the development of a new pool in 2023.
“At which time they will consult with the community about an outdoor pool, location, etc.”
The committee is expected to meet in early October and Norman says council will attempt to determine what the committee’s function will be before that first meeting.
