Quispamsis Wants To Talk Amalgamation With Rothesay

A Quispamsis councillor wants to know what residents think about amalgamating with Rothesay.

Councillor Sean Luck brought up the topic during Tuesday night’s regular council meeting.

“I think Quispamsis and Rothesay are very close communities, we share a long history,” said Luck.

“From people that I talk to, there’s always been conversation about why we didn’t amalgamate years ago when they did the first round of amalgamation in this area.”

Luck originally suggested a plebiscite during next spring’s municipal election to get the thoughts of residents.

But town officials said plebiscites are meant to vote on a specific issue — not gather feedback — and suggested hiring a third-party company to conduct a survey.

Council voted to bring up the survey idea at the next joint advisory committee meeting with Rothesay, which is scheduled for September.

One Councillor Votes Against

Emil Olsen was the only councillor to vote against Luck’s motion. He said enough residents have told him they do not want to amalgamate that he does not need a survey to tell him any different.

“It would give us a bigger voice at the table,” Luck said of amalgamating the two towns.

“Right now you have Saint John, which has the largest say, and it seems like they tend to bully a little bit. I think that if we were a united voice, it may make the conversation a little bit different.”

The topic of amalgamation in the greater Saint John has long been controversial.

Last year, Saint John council asked the province to investigate amalgamating the greater Saint John area into one municipality, despite opposition from Quispamsis, Rothesay and Grand Bay-Westfield. The province later rejected the city’s request.