Choice of 'Baie-Jolie sur mer' as name of merged community gets cool response

Four communities in northern New Brunswick have chosen a new name, but the reception has not been as warm and inviting as nearby Chaleur Bay.

A committee made up of officials from Beresford, Nigadoo, Petit-Rocher and Pointe-Verte, as well as the neighbouring local service districts, got 70 suggestions from residents.

After members went through a process of elimination, with advice from a historian, they landed on Baie-Jolie, but with an addition sur mer.

Petit-Rocher Mayor Rachel Boudreau said the 14 members of this committee deliberated for three hours Sunday to reach a consensus on Baie-Jolie surmer.

But Boudreau said people have been less than impressed with the name.

Under her social media post about thename, 90 comments have been made, some complaining that "baie" and "surmer" are too close in meaning, that the name is too long, and that it excludes the LSDs that are not on the water.

"It's not easy to come up with this name and with what we had," Boudreau said. "We thought we had a good name."

The final approval has not been granted yet, Boudreau said. The province has the final say on whether to accept or reject a name, and that decision would be made on May 16.

Choosing the new name is one step in the province-mandated amalgamation of municipalities and LSDs, with the goal toreduce municipal entities from 340 to less than 100.

'Acadie' not an option

Boudreau said many of the 70 suggested names included the word Acadie. She said the historian advised them that this would describeapeople and not physical areas. so the committee excluded it as an option

"You can be an Acadian from anywhere in the world, not necessarily a specific region," she said. "That [excluded] a lot of names."

Boudreau said people are still sending in comments and suggestions, but the deadline for proposing a name was May 2.

Not all feedback on Baie-Jolie sur mer was negative, she said, and she's heard from people who think it's pretty.

In the end, she said, no matter what name is confirmed, she will always say she's from Petit-Rocher.

According to the province's rules, current addresses won't be changed to reflect the name of the merged communities.

Thenew name will be used by the new municipal council and would be the name used in tourism advertisements.

"It's more of an administration thing. And for me, a marketing name. It's not where exactly I'm from, because I'm from Petit-Rocher," she said.

Meanwhile, a few kilometres farther east, the communities of Grande-Anse, Bertrand, Saint-Lolin, Maisonnette and surrounding LSDs have also chosen a new name: Rivire-du-Nord.

Yvon Godin, the mayor of Bertrand, told Radio-Canada that about 40 names were suggested, and the final name was also decided by a naming committee with representatives from each community.

"We think that Rivire-du-Nord defined us better as a new entity," he said.