Why are the "management" staff levels always increasing in this town.. with very highly paid people that appear not to be able to achieve anything for these large paydays that they receive ... so what is the goal?
Bloated bureaucracy is becoming the norm in our government.. waste.. and increased spending.
Why are your taxes increasing on your property>?
Is the current Tantramar Town Hall an inefficient operation and should its staffing be cut? Discuss...
Tantramar Welcomes New Director of Protective Services
I think candidates for Mayor and Council should be advocating reforming council decision making and the role of councilors. If you are wondering why the policy making on the Tantramar fire department has not gone well, a major undiscussed reason is the structure of council. A citizen recently brought to my attention that Tantramar has no system of either council committees or Liaison Councilors. This is important because that system meant that 1-3 councilors would meet at least monthly with the department head to discuss the issues, and what actions needed to be recommended to council. In the areas of Finance and Administration, Parks and Recreation, and Protective Services, for example, three areas I served on in the 1998-2004 range, someone would be assigned to follow up on things, represent the interests of the council, and bring forward recommendations to the council which they would be able to justify. “How are things going in the Fire Department?” is a question that should have been asked every month over the past several years. No system of committees or Liaison Councilors means a centralization of power in the hands of the CAO and staff, and possibly the Mayor, and look where that got us. If everyone is responsible then often no one is. Veteran councilors who inherited and lived with the old system should have known better when there were proposals to eliminate it. Hopefully the next council will rethink this and restore the role of the regular councilor to specialize in municipal areas of activity in order to better serve the public."
Commentary was found at this April 19th, 2026 article from Bruce Wark's "The New Wark Times" recently at this link:
Other expensive hires that appear unnecessary include Jamie Ferguson, Jeff Taylor, Ron Kelly-Spurles and Matt Pryde [who was hired to work in Parks and Rec. for the Town Hall but decided he would relocate himself into the Ice Rink Arena facility.] All these hires are paid well but none of them seem to be able to get organized enough to actually build a new skatepark or instal an elevator at the ice rink.
