BY ROSS MURRAY

NORTH HATLEY - With the next round of municipal mergers expected to be announced in the new year, including for the Sherbrooke metropolitan region, mayors of North Hatley, Hatley Township, Lennoxville, Compton, and Waterville are expected to get together this weekend to make sure they’re all on the same team.

While the municipal representatives may not share the same vision for what a reorganized region should look like, they agree on one thing - none wants to be swallowed up by Sherbrooke.

But it is difficult to find anyone among the mayors who feels that Quebec City will allow these smaller municipalities to maintain their status quo.

" I’ve been told that’s not going to happen, " said Lennoxville mayor Doug MacAulay.

Among the plans for reorganization being put forward is the one proposed earlier this year by Sherbrooke mayor Jean Perreault. This plan would see the greater Sherbrooke region divided into three new towns. One of these towns would incorporate Lennoxville, Waterville, Compton, Hatley Township, and North Hatley.

As forced-merger evils go, this would be the lesser, MacAulay suggested.

" We’re more interested in going that route rather than going with Sherbrooke, " he said. " One of our main objectives is to maintain our bilingual status. "

This new town would achieve that, or just barely, MacAulay said. The bilingual nature of Lennoxville is something mediator Pierre Gauthier is paying special attention to, he added.

Gauthier has been mandated by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to meet with the mayors in the Sherbrooke region and prepare a report by February 1. A preliminary report will be presented to the mayors December 15. As far as Lennoxville is concerned, MacAulay has already stressed to Gauthier the community’s need to maintain its bilingual status, its services, and its contact with elected officials.

90% opposed

MacAulay also submitted a survey of 200 Lennoxville francophones and 200 anglophones prepared by Bishop’s University students that revealed that 90 percent of the respondents opposed a merger with Sherbrooke.

MacAulay admitted, however, that the ongoing opposition in the Montreal area and the government’s determination to force through the one-island-one-city option reveal that the towns " don’t have a lot of say. "

North Hatley mayor Stephan Doré wants the neighboring mayors to get together so that they can formulate some sort of position before Gauthier deposits his preliminary report. This is despite the fact that North Hatley and Hatley Township have already stated by resolution that they want nothing to do with a merger either with Sherbrooke or the Lennoxville-area towns.

" We want to continue to push our regional initiatives with the five municipalities around Lake Massawippi, " said Doré. This agreement to share services and purchasing power has already saved North Hatley $10,000, he said. It’s a way to show the government that municipalities can act together with fiscal responsibility without actually merging.

In fact, Doré goes as far as to say that if there was to be a new alignment of municipalities for North Hatley and Hatley Township, it should be to create a new town around the lake that would incorporate these two municipalities along with Hatley, Ste-Catherine-de-Hatley, and Ayer’s Cliff.

Doré has initiated this weekend’s meeting in order to see where all the parties stand - whether Waterville and Lennoxville, for instance, want to go it alone as a merged entity, whether Compton would fit in, and what stand the municipalities can take together.

" We are not clear what their position is, " he said.

The municipalities must act rather than react, Doré said.

" We can’t just sleep and let the parade pass us by, " he said.

With the Montreal template now laid out, this region’s municipal representatives are starting to gird for the fight ahead.

According to Compton director-general Sylvie Dolbec, her council has told the mediator that Compton is a rural community with nothing in common with the Sherbrooke urban milieu. What’s more, the municipality has already gone through two mergers in the past six years: Compton Village and Compton Township amalgamated in 1994. The new Compton and Compton Station merged last year.

Like Doré, Dolbec said Compton could accomplish more by building economic ties with the Coaticook-area municipalities.

Mayor Gérard Boudreau of Waterville, said his council would likewise prefer to maintain the status quo. This municipality too went through an annexation process three years ago. Complicating matters is that three years ago it annexed a part of Ascot. As part of the deal, the municipality had to pay what was left of Ascot $280,000 over six years. Hatley Township is paying off the same " alimony. "

" We’ve asked that we be left alone at least until that’s paid off, " said Boudreau. " Probably they won’t let us. "

With so many unknowns, it is unclear as of yet whether the population will rise up to oppose the mergers as they have in the Montreal region. But Lennoxville’s MacAulay said it is time for people to start thinking about it.

" People have to get active about this, " he said.

Source : Stanstead Journal