Grand Bay-Westfield and a portion of the Westfield West local service district (LSD) will amalgamate as of Jan. 1, 2023.
Town council and LSD Transition Committee reps recently approved the naming process for the new amalgamated community — currently known as Entity 51.
Brittany Merrifield, mayor of the town of Grand Bay-Westfield, said it is critical for residents from both communities to be involved in the process.
“Having everyone in our community have a voice in who we are and who we will be is vital to our two communities truly joining together as one,” Merrifield said during a special councl meeting last week.
A nine-person naming committee will be formed to help with the process. It will consist of two members of town council, the two LSD transition committee reps, three residents from Grand Bay-Westfield, and two residents from the impacted portion of the Westfield West LSD.
Residents who are interested in serving on the naming committee can submit their request via email to administration@towngbw.ca before noon on Friday, Feb. 25.
Over the coming weeks, residents will submit potential names for the new amalgamated community, and the committee will choose the top three to five.
Residents will vote on those top choices, which will include Grand Bay-Westfield, through a ranked ballot process.
“When it’s such an important question about identity, who we are, it seems to us that the ranked ballot choice is the most important one because, at the very minimum, we’re going to get 50 per cent plus one of the population will have voted for the name,” said John Enns-Wind, chief administrative officer for Grand Bay-Westfield.
Enns-Wind said they are hoping to do the voting online between April 11 and 25, but residents will also have the option to vote by paper.
He said they hope to announce the winning name during a special council meeting on May 2.
Coun. Beverley Day said the amalgamation is a huge opportunity for residents of both communities.
“For those that are in Westfield West, this is hard, I know. I have seen, in my lifetime, a lot of amalgamations,” said Day.
“My hope is we do this right, we do this and come together because together we can move mountains. Divided, you and I both know, means we’re gonna fall flat on our faces.”
The two communities are being forced to amalgamate under the province’s local governance reform plan announced in November.
As part of the reforms, New Brunswick is slashing the number of local government entities in the province from 340 to 90.
Under the new structure, the number of local governments — cities, towns, villages, rural communities and regional municipalities — is being reduced from 104 to 78.
There is also going to be 12 rural districts made up of the local service districts (LSDs) that have not become part of a local government. Currently, New Brunswick has 236 local service districts.
Several municipalities are being merged into larger local governments and, in some cases, will also be merged with some neighbouring LSDs:
- St. George and Blacks Harbour;
- Sussex and Sussex Corner;
- Beaubassin-Est and Cap-Pelé;
- Sackville and Dorchester;
- Alma, Hillsborough and Riverside-Albert;
- Chipman and Minto;
- Cambridge-Narrows and Gagetown.
Other communities are being expanded to include parts of surrounding LSDs, including St. Martins, Hampton, Grand Bay-Westfield, Saint Andrews, St. Stephen, Moncton, Dieppe, Salisbury, Shediac, Port Elgin, Rogersville, Saint-Louis-de-Kent, Richibucto, Rexton, Bouctouche, Saint-Antoine and Cocagne.
The communities of Saint John, Rothesay, Quispamsis, Grand Manan, Campobello Island, Riverview, Memramcook and Petitcodiac, among others, will not see any changes to their boundaries.
Special local elections and byelections will take place, where needed, in November, with the newly restructured local governments and rural districts officially taking effect on Jan. 1, 2023.
More details about the local governance reform process can be found online.
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