{"id":189091,"date":"2023-10-25T13:01:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T17:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=189091"},"modified":"2023-10-25T13:01:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T17:01:56","slug":"halifax-committee-considers-designated-mikmaw-council-seat-voting-power-for-permanent-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/halifax-committee-considers-designated-mikmaw-council-seat-voting-power-for-permanent-residents\/","title":{"rendered":"Halifax committee considers designated Mi\u2019kmaw council seat, voting power for permanent residents\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Halifax councillors are looking to create a designated Mi\u2019kmaw council seat, allowing permanent residents to vote in municipal elections and other changes to legislative amendments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the city\u2019s executive standing committee meeting on Monday, councillors discussed a report that looks at electoral reforms that require legislative amendments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The report<\/span><\/a> to council asks that the Chief Administrative Officer include \u201cdesignated or protected seats for specific groups (African Nova Scotian, Francophonie, Indigenous representation).\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the meeting, Coun. Waye Mason said, \u201cwhat we heard, over and over again, was 'we think there should be a Mi'kmaw seat in Halifax.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also asks that permanent residents have the right to vote in municipal elections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have met residents in district 12 that have their permanent status that have jobs here, buy houses here and help our economy,\u201d Coun. Iona Stoddard said. \u201cThey pay taxes and should be able to have a say in who their municipal councillor is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Coun. Paul Russell asked that the vote on permanent residents and Mi\u2019kmaw council seat be done separately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am in complete support of the idea of permanent residents being able to vote,\u201d Russell said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Russell said while he sat on the Halifax school board 20 years, having a designated seat brought \u201cchallenges.\u201d Russell said this system can cause the designated seat to take on the role of a more vocal advocate for their population, rather than the whole region.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would happen if we have someone in that role who is more of an activist instead of a representative of equal voices across the municipality,\u201d Russell said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Coun. Patty Cuttell said that could happen with any representative, not just the Mi\u2019kmaw community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that having that voice as part of our discussions and deliberations is an important one,\u201d Cuttell said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both recommendations will come before the regional council at a later date.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halifax councillors are looking to create a designated Mi\u2019kmaw council seat, allowing permanent residents to vote in municipal elections and other changes to legislative amendments.\u00a0 During the city\u2019s executive standing committee meeting on Monday, councillors discussed a report that looks at electoral reforms that require legislative amendments.\u00a0 The report to council asks that the Chief…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":189098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,16830,225],"tags":[29216,31824,31823,29658,29654,31822,25780],"radio":[13058],"origine":[274,300,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189091"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190874,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189091\/revisions\/190874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189091"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=189091"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=189091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}