Tignish, P.E.I, wants to become a town

The community of Tignish, P.E.I., wants to become a town.

"The status of township is more appealing to people that are coming in to start businesses and to have their homes and stuff in a town rather than a community or village," explained AllanMcInnis, chair of the community council.

The community council has been throwing around the idea for over a year, but with the new municipalities act set to come into effect this year the timeline got pushed up.

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The new act will bring in minimum sizes for new towns and cities. The new minimum for a town will be 4,000 residents.

"So if we move now we can get under the guidelines with the 900 people we have now, so we decided to put an application in," said McInnis.

McInnis said that there hasn't been any indication from the provinces that taxes would go up as a result of becoming a town, and said he wouldn't have applied if that was the case.

Hopes to expand

The Municipal Government Act passed this past December, but it could take until the end of 2017 until it's proclaimed.

The Act will bring big changes for P.E.I.'s 73 municipalities, which could include amalgamation. McInnis is hoping by becoming a town, Tignish could look to expand.

"When we become a town we'll be able to maybe expand our boundaries and make the community a larger place, where as if we stayed a rural community we could be swallowed up and lose our identity to other municipalities."

The Department of Communities, Land and Environment said that the application is before cabinet now and a decision is pending.

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