MONTAGUE - Possible misinformation and a lack of communication were a common theme amongst the residents who voiced their concerns of the Three Rivers region amalgamation during a public hearing at Montague Regional High School on Wednesday.
The hearing lasted over three hours with a majority of people voicing their concerns over the establishment of a Greater Three Rivers area municipality.
The amalgamation would see the coming together of Cardigan, Montague, Georgetown, Valleyfield, Lorne Valley, Brudenell, and Lower Montague.
The meeting was held by the Prince Edward Island regulatory and appeals commission (IRAC), which now holds the decision making in whether to amalgamate the seven Kings County municipalities.
Terri Welsh of Riverton said she was in the dark about amalgamation until two years ago when a neighbour told her their community was included.
Amalgamation talks have been ongoing since 2013.
“We did not receive a notice in the mail, nothing to inform us that we’re part of this,” she said. “This was not communicated to a great deal of communities who didn’t get their mail from Cardigan post office.”
Mayor of Lower Montague Scott Annear first said that issue has been resolved.
“We spoke to this at the first meeting that we were at,” he said. “We weren’t aware that Riverton has two different post offices so we did address that in the further mailouts.”
RELATED: Montague council passes motion in support of Greater Three Rivers Area amalgamation
Welsh said she still has not received anything in the mail, which she gets from Mount Stewart.
“Frankly, if you’re doing that level of research, how on earth are we supposed to trust anything you’re doing if you can’t actually look at where people are and where something as simple as their mail comes from,” she said.
Annear responded with, “I guess we made a mistake.”
Kelly Campbell of Kinross said he has seen two versions of the proposed amalgamation map and one has Kinross on it while the other doesn’t.
Annear said it would depend on which fire department Campbell would contact in an emergency.
Unincorporated areas in the amalgamation are from three fire districts — Montague, Georgetown, and Cardigan.
“The map has my house in the Three Rivers amalgamation even though we are part of the Vernon River fire district,” said Campbell. “Just bringing to your attention that the map is incorrect and does have extra communities involved that have not had a say in this process so make note of that.”
Annear said the map was provided by government.
J. Scott MacKenzie, the chair and chief executive officer of IRAC, said they will look into the matter of the opposing maps. For now, it is still based on the fire districts.
“I think it’s fair to say that if there’s an error on the map what will be determined is whether you’re in those three fire districts because… that’s the reference that’s before us,” said MacKenzie.
A plebiscite was held in January by residents of the unincorporated areas. Of roughly 2,000 registered voters, there was a turnout of 1,250 with 1,174 votes against amalgamation.
Lucy Robbins, who was one of the voters in the unincorporated areas, said that information has been ignored.
“As far as we’re concerned if the seven municipalities… want to get together and amalgamate and they’re all in favour of it that’s wonderful,” said Robbins. “If you can save money and everything’s going to be great that’s wonderful. We wish you luck but just leave us out of it would you? Nobody asked us.”
Meanwhile, not everyone who spoke at the hearing was against the amalgamation. A handful of residents who were for the Greater Three Rivers area also voiced their opinions at the microphone.
Anne Vandonkersgoed of Valleyfield was one of those residents.
“One of the reasons I’m in favour is because I think with a larger community, we’ll have a larger voice about land use and I’m concerned about what’s been happening in some areas and who’s buying our land and whether our farmers have land to farm,” she said.
Stacy Toms of Georgetown said the areas do not have to be amalgamated to work on the same common issues.
“I kind of thought for things like the hospital we were all working on the same page right now,” she said. “I don’t think we need to be amalgamated to have the same goals.”
Following the hearing, IRAC will submit a decision to government within 45 days.
