Land owned by premier's brother excluded from amalgamation proposal

P.E.I.'s Official Opposition wants to know why land owned by Premier Wade MacLauchlan's brother has been excluded from an amalgamation proposal put forward by the communities of North Shore, Grand Tracadie and Pleasant Grove.

The communities have submitted a proposal for amalgamation with the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission, and maps included in that proposal show the area in the middle of the proposed municipality has been excluded.

Government has confirmed the property is owned by Roger MacLauchlan. There was a lively exchange over the property during question period Tuesday.

"We've got an amalgamation proposal and the whole area is being amalgamated and annexed except for 60 acres of the premier's brother's land," said Brad Trivers, PC MLA for Rustico-Emerald.

"Question to the premier: Can you tell the house why your brother's land was the only piece of land to be omitted?"

'Still in the family'

"Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to say that my great-grandfather and great-grandmother purchased a farm on the top of the hill at Stanhope in 1864 and that it's still in the family," Wade MacLauchlan responded, noting the land had produced "a lot of MacLauchlans since that time and I'm proud to be one of them."

As to why the parcel was not included in plans for the new municipality, the premier said it is an "anomaly" based on the fact the parcel was never included in any of the three municipalities involved in the amalgamation proposal. 

"This derives from when those school district boundaries were drawn to provide schooling for students who could walk the distance of a mile to the schoolhouse, and there were no students on the land in question ... it's one of those historic anomalies," he said.

"The question of incorporating that land within the amalgamation is, indeed, being dealt with," MacLauchlan added. 

Trivers responded with a suggestion that MacLauchlan and his government were operating under a double standard.

"They're saying that annexation is good for Islanders," he said. "They want to see annexation happen across this entire Island; however, it appears that annexation is not good enough for the MacLauchlan family."

Landowner 'agreeable' to annexation

 Jonathan MacLean, CAO for the community of North Shore, told CBC News the tax value of the land in question was so small as to make the issue of taxation "not relevant."

He said the parcel would be dealt with in the future, but confirmed it was not included in the proposal submitted to IRAC, and that the provincial Department of Municipal Affairs had advised the three communities "to leave be" with the parcel for now.

Government's executive director of public affairs Mary Moszynski said no one lives on the parcel in question, and the landowner "would be agreeable" to having the land annexed as part of the proposal. She also pointed out the proposal came from the three municipal councils, not from the province.

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