COVID Delays Pugwash AGM and Election

The annual meeting and an election for one seat on the Pugwash Village Commission have been postponed. The AGM is usually held in May but the current COVID regulations will not allow such a gathering.

Similarly, an election to the five member commission has been put-off till public health rules allow people to move more freely from their homes.

The Pugwash Commission staggers elections to avoid a wholesale change and provide some continuity among the decision makers. The seat, currently held by Roger Mundle, would have been open for nominations this month.

The AGM is a throwback to earlier days when residents and taxpayers were invited to a public meeting to hear annual reports and review the village budget and plans for the immediate future.

People representing village committees and community organizations are invited to offer a wrap-up of activities from the past year.

The same practice by Nova Scotia’s larger municipalities was discontinued over the years with towns, cities, and large rural municipalities encouraging ratepayers to get connected with the monthly activities of their respective councils.

COVID regulations have impacted all of Nova Scotia’s municipalities. Most have opted to meet via video conferencing for the main participants with some form of streaming to the public over common social media platforms. Too often, however, the social media connections have failed, partly due to broken connections, but more often due to insufficient internet service that leaves presentations garbled, stilted (pixilated), or frozen, especially true in more rural areas that are not equipped for the free-flow of the information highway.

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