ADA

After years of controversy surrounding the development of pre-approved aquaculture sites in Argyle, Warden Nicole Albright says online criticism of her and the municipality have gone too far.

Earlier in October, the Municipality of the District of Argyle (MoDA) released an independent merit assessment report that the municipality commissioned from Rick Dunlop, a lawyer based out of Halifax.

The report looked at the allegations put forth from the Association for Responsible Aquaculture in Argyle (ARA), which included bid-rigging, falsifying information, conflicts of interest and more.

The assessment found that the MoDA met their legal obligations and that the evidence provided was not enough to warrant a formal inquiry, but did acknowledge that complainants had “legitimate concerns” and “raise compelling public policy questions”.

In a statement following the publishing of that report, the ARA said not all of their concerns were addressed.

They say although the legal review concluded their allegations did not meet the threshold for asking the province to begin a formal inquiry, that doesn’t mean how the Municipality handled the process was acceptable.

Criticism veering into personal territory

What started as a problem with the municipality’s public consultation process quickly approached harassment, according to Albright. She says a handful of people in the community have been relentless in making demands and false statements.

She said posts online, including many from the ARA, will often take her words out of context, and pick and choose what they want to include to prove their point, despite what the results of the assessment report, or the previous Ombudsman report might say.

“It’s absolutely a loud minority,” said Albright. “I just encourage people to read the report and do their own research, just because you see it on a special interest group doesn’t mean it’s actually true. Ask questions.”

Albright said besides public engagement, all decision making processes were handled by the province, despite accusations of the municipality favouring a specific local farmer.

“That is as far from the truth as possible. We have had zero decision making power within the aquaculture development area (ADA),” said Albright.

She says that demands and questions from the ARA have been relentless, and that although she and the council do the best that they can to be responsive, their answers aren’t what the ARA wants to hear.

Albright said that at some point, when it becomes personally targeted, she has to draw a line.

“We can tell the truth, but if it’s not what they want to hear, then it’s not always accepted,” said Albright. “You have to take a step back and put up boundaries, and there have been times that I’ve had to put up boundaries and stop responding.”

One incident Albright described involved her giving a eulogy after the loss of a close friend. She said this friend was someone who often reached out to support her and check in during difficult times of conflict with the community. 

Despite the private and personal nature of her words, Albright said even those got used against her online.

“The comment came from somebody in that group, she wrote that ‘council has remained silent on how the Warden… took to the pulpit of a church to bully grieving residents during her eulogy,” said Albright. “It was extremely hurtful, and not at all related to the ADA.”

Albright went on to say the comment had since been changed or deleted, and that she may have been paraphrasing slightly without the screenshot of it in front of her. She said she intentionally wanted to make note of that because she feels she’s been personally attacked over practically anything she says.

“My words are very, very measured and still, they are taken and twisted,” said Albright. “It becomes extremely difficult to speak on this matter publicly.”

She says the experience has been difficult, isolating, and had an impact on her mental health, and that members of the community can quickly forget local politicians are people too. People who live, shop and work in the same spaces as everyone else.

Besides her own well-being, Albright said she’s also concerned for the future of the municipality. Having lived in Argyle for almost her entire life, she said she feels like she doesn’t know what’s happened to her home.

“It’s very disheartening to see people in our community have done this,” said Albright. “It’s a really really sad state of where we are right now and it just doesn’t feel like the Argyle way.”

ARA say they’ve remained professional

Michael Scott is a member of the ARA, and said he believes the group has done a good job at keeping their issues focused on the facts.

“I don’t think there’s been any personal attacks,” said Scott. “I think speaking to facts and challenging municipal decisions is not harassment or bullying.”

He adds that he did hear about the post concerning the Warden’s eulogy.

“Yes, I will admit I did see that. For the Warden to be expressing at a eulogy her concerns of bullying by residents, I feel is an inappropriate area,” said Scott. “But I do believe the person that made the Facebook post or whatever it was… perhaps that was.. A little inappropriate I’ll say.”

Scott said his two main concerns are that people who have built their homes and lives in the area will be affected by lowered property values, and that the consultation process was not sufficient.

He said he doesn’t have confidence in the municipality to improve their consultation process, despite their commitment to do so after recommendations from the Ombudsman.

Warden Albright said that the municipality is working on releasing that information as soon as it’s ready to be published.

Scott thinks they’ve had plenty of time to implement meaningful changes, but would allow for a few more months.

“I would think by the end of this year, that would be a pretty reasonable timeline for them to develop the policy,” said Scott.

Throughout the process, Scott says the ARA have been misrepresented by the municipality as being a group spreading misinformation and harassment. He said that if anyone has been partaking in online bullying, it’s the municipality.

Even the number of people within the ARA isn’t something that can be easily agreed upon.

“That’s a contentious issue,” said Scott. “We have 300 to 400 followers on our group that pay close attention to what we’re promoting, but you only have maybe 10 people that have taken the lead to really forward the position of the group.”

He said there are those in the community afraid to speak up because it might impact their business relationship with the municipality.

Moving forward

Albright said she hopes that the most recent report finally puts the public at ease, and that they can move past the issue. If not, she says she will most likely continue directing questions to the province, something she says she wished she did in the first place.

“We were trying to solve a problem that wasn’t ours to solve,” said Albright.

Scott says his group is less likely to take the report as the end of things.

“This whole merit assessment is a paid for legal opinion, there’s nothing binding,” said Scott. “I explain it as ‘they hired a lawyer, we hire a lawyer’, who makes the decision?”

Acadia News has reached out to Rick Dunlop for comment and clarification, but has not received a response.