Public consultations on wards and representation review

Feb 3, 2025

Public consultations organized by the Electoral Wards and Representation Review Committee will be held from February 10 to 24. To reach as many residents as possible, committee members will be travelling to each ward to engage in a dialogue with the public.

“We think it's essential to meet the public directly to have a frank discussion about how the wards and representation currently work, especially since the 2023 reform, when parts of the LSDs of Saint-Jacques and Saint-Joseph and the Village of Rivière-Verte joined the City of Edmundston. We'll be able to make recommendations to the municipal council by talking to the public as part of a consultation exercise,” explains George Pérusse, chair of the review committee.

To set the stage for these consultations, a complete bilingual information newsletter will be distributed to every household within Edmundston's municipal boundaries this week.

The public consultation sessions will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in each ward, according to the following schedule:

Ward 4 - Downtown, Edmundston West, Verret, Carrefour de la jeunesse. Monday, February 10 at the Edmundston Convention Centre, 74, Canada Road.

Ward 3 - Edmundston East, Riviera Park, Sacré-Coeur sectors. Wednesday, February 12 at the Club d'âge d'or Sacré-Cœur, 15, Irène Street.

Ward 1 - Saint-Jacques, P'tiso Park, Edmundston-North, Baisley, part of the former Saint-Jacques and Saint-Joseph LSDs. Thursday, February 13 at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 40 Paul-Grondin Avenue.

Ward 5 - Rivière-Verte sector. Thursday, February 20 at the gymnasium of École Mgr-Matthieu-Mazerolle, 4, De l'École Street.

Ward 2 – Saint-Basile and Regional Hospital sectors. Monday, February 24 at the Centre Maillet (Bistro room), 12, Ben-Martin Avenue.

The sessions will take the form of workshops to allow people to discuss freely. The dialogue will focus on the following :

• The current traditional model (representation by wards
• The general representation model (no wards, with councillors elected at large throughout the city)                                                                                                                      
• The hybrid representation model (with wards, where some councillors are elected by the general population and others by ward
• The number of wards to represent the population properly
• The number of councillors

Finally, from February 25 to March 7, citizens will also be able to complete an online questionnaire and submit written comments by e-mail to revision.zones@gmail.com.

“We hope that the population will take an active part in this consultation exercise. Our objective is to be able to recommend the best possible representative model so that every citizen feels well represented at the municipal council table," concludes Mr. Pérusse.

-30-

For information: George Pérusse, revision.zones@gmail.com

In the photo, the members of the committee: front row, the Chairman, George Pérusse and Dominique Babineau. Back row: Jacques Desjardins, Noëlline LeBel, Madeleine Dubé and Bernard LeBel.