The new town of Tantramar will look different than either of its predecessors, with staff from both Sackville and Dorchester filling in a new organizational structure, along with at least four new positions to be hired in the New Year.

Tantramar CAO Jennifer Borne announced the new structure on Monday. Sackville and Dorchester staff were informed of the changes late last week.

The new town will have six main departments, overseen by an office of the CAO, which includes the town clerk and one new position, a manager of human resources.

Another new position, corporate communications officer, will fall under the department of Community and Corporate Services, to be headed up by Sackville’s current special projects manager, Kieran Miller.

The town will also be hiring new directors for a department of Financial Services and a department of Protective Services. The other three new departments will be headed up by current Sackville managers: A department of Corporate Compliance will be headed up by current Sackville treasurer Michael Beal; Active Living and Culture will be headed up by current Sackville recreation director Matt Pryde; and Engineering and Public Works will be managed by current Sackville town engineer, Jon Eppell.

The new departments break down like so:

• Office of the CAO: Legislative services (clerk) and human resources, overall management
• Corporate Compliance: risk management, asset management and planning, contracts and agreements, process improvement, procurement, information technology, health and safety, reporting of key performance indicators.
• Protective Services: fire services, police services, by-law enforcement, EMO, and animal control.
• Financial Services: accounts payable and receivable, financial planning, costing and advice to council
• Engineering and Public Works: road maintenance and clearing; major infrastructure projects; maintaining town property except parks and recreation facilities.
• Active Living and Culture: parks and recreation programming and facilities.
• Community and Corporate Services: communications, liaise with Southeast Regional Service Commission, tourism and economic development, climate change, health care, housing and other special issues.

One of the bigger changes is the creation of a corporate compliance department, which Borne explains is part of what is now looked after by Sackville Treasurer Michael Beal. “It will really be critical to the success of Tantramar,” says Borne. The addition of a reporting function will help, “facilitate a transparent and open government,” says Borne, and will also help with increased reporting requirements expected to come from the province. “Given the importance of this portfolio, Michael Beal has been asked to lead this department as the new director of corporate compliance,” says Borne.

That means Beal’s current Sackville position, treasurer (and now director of Financial Services), will need to be filled in the new year. The new department of Financial Services will work on budget development, advising council on financial management, accounts payable and receivable, and harmonizing the administration of Sackville and Dorchester utilities. It’s expected to be a very complex job, especially in the first few years of the amalgamation, with five different operating and capital budgets to manage and eventually harmonize.

‘Cheques will still be able to be written’

People can’t be hired in time be in place before January 1, so Borne says staff will cover their former responsibilities in the interim. “There’s still going to be overlap as we transition,” says Borne. “Cheques will still be able to be written.” Current Sackville assistant treasurer Elizabeth Hartling will continue as deputy treasurer in the new department of Financial Services, and Borne expects that Michael Beal and accounting staff in Dorchester will be involved in operating the financial machinery in the beginning. “Really one of the most important priorities is ensuring that staff will be paid and we’re working through the final steps to to make sure that happens,” says Borne. “It will happen.”

The departments of Engineering and Public Works and Active Living and Culture will be managed by current Sackville directors, but there will be a shift in responsibilities there. The management of parks and facilities such as the Tantramar Civic Centre currently fall under public works, but now will shift over to Active Living.

“As we come together, we’ll see a substantial increase in the number of our rec facilities and cultural events,” says Borne. And it’ll expand further as investments are made in our LSD [local service district] areas.” The department of Active Living and Culture will coordinate and support that growth, says Borne.

Matt Pryde and the Active Living department will manage parks and recreation facilities, but the major capital projects to renovate or build new facilities will still fall under Engineering and Public Works, headed up by current Sackville engineer Jon Eppell.

Though the province says it is handling road works for the former Local Service District areas of Tantramar, Borne says she expects the role of public works to grow with the size of the municipality. Tantramar will take over ownership of the Point de Bute fire hall from the province, and “we might see strategic priorities increased infrastructure, increased planning required in these areas,” says Borne.

“We’re responsible for all of Tantramar. So that’ll really be up to staff working closely with council of what that looks like, and what development is going to occur straight across Tantramar,” says Borne.

Status quo for fire departments

One of the big questions about amalgamation has been what would happen to the three fire departments in the new municipality. According to Borne, it will be status quo for the departments, at least in the short term. All three Fire Chiefs will report to a new manager of Protective Services, who will be hired in the new year.

Protective Services will look after more than just fire departments, says Borne, with by-law enforcement, animal control, and EMO also falling under the umbrella. The new department will also take on “ongoing and on-the-horizon discussions on policing reform, or even management of the current contracts, whether it be the local municipal contract, or the provincial contract through Dorchester,” says Borne.

The final new department, Community and Corporate Services, will liaise with the Southeast Regional Services Commission (SERSC), which itself has vastly increased responsibilities. Kieran Miller will head up Community and Corporate Services, managing everything from planning to economic development to municipal responses to climate change, health care, and affordable housing. This is also the department that will house a new corporate communications officer to manage both internal and external communications.

“This department will also be responsible for a lot of our, we’ll call them social projects,” says Borne, “as well as strategic priorities that we’ll see come out of the new council… A lot of files that we historically, traditionally would not see in local government–being discussions on housing, health care– will all fit in this department.”

All in all, the new organizational structure represents quite a makeover compared to the previous municipalities. Borne says that over the past six weeks, she and transition facilitator Chad Peters sat down with staff in both Sackville and Dorchester to talk about their challenges and ideas for a future Tantramar.

The idea was, “to really make sure that we had all the information to come out with an organizational structure that fit both the current needs as well as looking towards the future of public expectations and staffing requirements to meet the needs of all of Tantramar,” says Borne.

Transition will take time, budget to be released in January

“We appreciate the patience that staff as well as the public have have had so far,” says Borne. “Ideally, January 1 would be the kickoff, but we know that there will be a transition period as we continue to shift files and put them in their appropriate departments.”

“The other final steps are falling into place,” says Borne, including the swearing in ceremony for a new council on Tuesday December 20 (see details below.)

There will also be “a couple of bylaws, that will be the mandatory ones, right off the bat, that the transition facilitator will be signing off on,” says Borne.

The budget is also in the hands of the transition facilitator Chad Peters. Originally due to the province in November, it’s now expected the budget will be finalized by the end of the week, but even then, “it will be probably be early New Year or mid-January before we really have further information released on the budget,” says Borne.

Both Sackville and Dorchester councils sent in budget priorities earlier this year, and staff have seen a high level presentation on the budget, but no details have been shared about what’s in store financially, including the all-important tax rates.

“As we know, there willl be a number of items that are cost shared throughout the whole entity,” says Borne. “So there willl be a new format, so to speak, for staff to be prepared for.”

“We’re getting to the final stages,” says Borne. “Everything’s starting to fall into place. I will fully say we don’t have all the answers yet. But we have the individuals in place that will oversee their departments. We have council in place since the election.”

Borne says she is “looking forward to working together to move the community forward, to move forward as one community, looking forward to the advancement of all of Tantramar.”

The swearing in ceremony for the new town of Tantramar council takes place tonight at 6pm at the Dorchester Veterans Community Centre, at 4955 Main Street in Dorchester. The agenda for the event includes opening remarks from the newly appointed Tantramar Clerk, Donna Beal, as well as remarks from the new Tantramar CAO, Jennifer Borne, and newly elected mayor Andrew Black. The ceremony and remarks will be livestreamed and there will be a reception to follow.