The Municipality of the District of Chester is a Nova Scotia district municipality occupying the northeastern half of Lunenburg County, Canada.

Chester
District municipality
Municipality of the District of Chester
Seal
Location of the Municipality of the District of Chester
Coordinates: 44.65°N 64.3°W / 44.65; -64.3
Country	Canada
Province	Nova Scotia
County	Lunenburg
Incorporated	April 17, 1879
Electoral Districts     Federal	South Shore—St. Margaret's
Provincial	Chester-St. Margaret's / Lunenburg
Government
• Type	Chester Municipal Council
• Municipal Seat	Chester
• Warden	Allen Webber
Area [1]
• Land	1,122.11 km2 (433.25 sq mi)
Population  (2016)
• Total	10,310
• Change 2011-16	2.7%
• Census ranking	399 of 4,870
Time zone	UTC-4 (AST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-3 (ADT)
Area code	902 - 275
Dwellings	6,161
Median Income*	$42,776 CDN
Website	Official website
Median household income, 2005 (all households)

The district boundary was originally drawn for court sessional purposes,[2] before the existence of elected local government. In 1879 it became a district municipality, to provide local government to the residents who live outside incorporated towns.[2] under the authority of the Municipal Government Act of 1998.[3]

The Municipality of the District of Chester is also a census division for Statistics Canada.[4]

Municipal Council

The Municipality of Chester has a town council that consists of 7 councillors and a warden who is appointed by the council, the municipal council was incorporated and founded in 1879. Elections to the council occur every four years unless there is a vacancy. If there is a vacancy in a district, a by-election occurs and the person who is elected will serve their term until the next scheduled election in the four-year cycle.[5]

Municipal Districts

• District 1: includes the communities Aspotogan, Bayswater, Blandford, Northwest Cove, Deep Cove, East River, and part of East Chester.
• District 2: Hubbards, Mill Cove, Fox Point, Simms Settlement, Mill Lake, and The Lodge.
• District 3: Chester village and part of East Chester.
• District 4: Chester Basin, Chester Grant, and part of Middle River.
• District 5: Gold River, Beech Hill, Western Shore, Martin's Point, and part of Martin's River.
• District 6: Seffernsville, Lake Ramsay, Forties, Franey Corner, and Fraxville.
• District 7: Windsor Road, Canaan, Sherwood, and Marriotts Cove.

Council Sessions

The current warden of the Municipality is Allen Webber, and the current deputy warden is Floyd Shatford[6]

*Following the 2021 Nova Scotia general election, District 3 councillor Danielle Barkhouse was elected as MLA to the riding of Chester-St. Margaret's. Following her election, she tendered her resignation from the municipal council, triggering a by-election where Derek Wells was elected councillor, for the remainder of the 2020-2024 council session.[7]

Nova Scotian Municipal politics do not have party affiliations.[9]

Controversy

In the summer of 2020 the municipal council faced criticism after denying to raise the LGBTQ pride flag outside of its municipal office during pride month. The Municipality prohibited the raising due to an old policy from 2007 that prohibited what flags could be raised on municipal buildings. The policy allowed only the flags of municipal, provincial, federal and national foreign governments or the United Nations to be flown from municipal poles.[10] The council faced immense backlash about their decision to not raise the flag,[11] the CBC and other news sources reported on it and the council received immense backlash.[12] The backlash attracted the attention of promonant LGBTQ2IA+ actor Eliot Page who in turn told people to call the office to tell them to overturn the rule.[13] No individual councillors made a public media comment, however Allen Webber, warden for the Municipality did on behalf of the council. On July 23, one day after the CBC posted the original article that attracted the eyes of many people, the municipality overturned the controversial rule, that day the flag was raised on the side of the municipal offices.[14]

Departments and services

There are seven departments in the district:[15]

• Community Development
• Corporate Services (Municipal Clerk)
• Engineering & Public Works
• Finance
• Information Services
• Recreation & Parks
• Solid Waste

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Municipality of the District of Chester had a population of 10,693 living in 5,028 of its 6,482 total private dwellings, a change of 3.7% from its 2016 population of 10,310. With a land area of 1,120.61 km² (432.67 sq mi), it had a population density of 9.5/km² (24.7/sq mi) in 2021.[17]

Parks, playgrounds and open spaces

The municipality operates 46 kilometres (29 mi) of trail on the former railway from Martins River to Hubbards. The trails are open to walkers, off-road vehicles, cyclists and horseback riders.[19]

Parks and outdoor areas include Anvil Park in Chester Basin, East River Property, Village of Chester Gazebo, Wild Rose Park in Western Shore and the Green Gym Park in Chester Basin.[20]

The Municipality of the District of Chester also has two playgrounds; Croft Road Playground located in Chester Basin and Gold River Playground located at the former Gold River Elementary School.[21]

Within the Village of Chester there is a skate park that was opened in 2009 after five years of planning and fundraising.[22]

Schools

The Municipality of the District of Chester has two schools that are also used for community use and open to the public.[23] These schools are Forest Heights Community School (FHCS)[24] which is located in Chester Grant and Aspotogan Consolidated Elementary School (ACES) [25] which is located in Mill Cove. These schools were developed as Community School from the beginning starting in 1992 for FHCS and 2000 for ACES.

Other schools located in the municipality include Chester Area Middle School,[26] Chester District Elementary School [27] and New Ross Consolidated School.[28]

References