The Town of Lunenburg declines to comment on whether a non-disclosure agreement was involved in the end of the employment of Hilary Grant, Interim Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and Director of Community Development.
The Barnacle can exclusively confirm that Hilary Grant, who was Director of Community Development and was scheduled to serve as Interim CAO of the Town of Lunenburg until Feb. 25, is no longer employed by the Town of Lunenburg.
The CAO is the senior staff person accountable to the Mayor and Council for implementation and administration of all council-approved policies and programs.
In Grant’s role as Interim CAO, and in the full-time role of Director of Community Development that she held prior to and during her time as Interim CAO, she led several key Town initiatives.
This included overseeing updates to the Old Town Lunenburg Heritage Conservation District Plan and By-law and taking Council’s direction on how to proceed with potential divestment of parcels of town-owned land on Blockhouse Hill.
In the Town’s Jan. 22 release regarding Grant’s plan to step down as Interim CAO, she was quoted as saying she looked forward to remaining in the Director of Community Development role.
“This decision is entirely my own and reflects my continued commitment to the Town’s success and stability. I am proud of the progress we have made during my tenure, and I look forward to advancing key initiatives as Director of Community Development,” she is quoted as saying in the release.
On Feb. 20, the Town announced Marvin MacDonald as its new Interim CAO.
This news came as a surprise, following the Town’s public statement published on Jan. 22 that Grant would remain in the Interim CAO role until Feb. 25 – which would have been five days after MacDonald was announced as assuming the responsibility.
The Town’s release on Feb. 20 did not indicate that Grant’s employment had ended.
The end of Grant’s employment appears to have occurred between Feb. 11 and Feb. 21, as Grant was present at the Feb. 11 meeting of Town Council.
The end of Grant’s employment comes on the heels of Lunenburg Town Council spending more than half of their time over their council meetings so far in “in camera” private meetings with a “Personnel Matter” item on the agenda, and no public disclosure of what has been discussed in any of these meetings.
Grant was appointed as Interim CAO on May 11, 2024.
Grant was appointed as Interim CAO under a Town Council that was led by current Mayor Jamie Myra, but a completely separate group of Town Councillors who all opted to not run for re-election in the October 2024 municipal election.
When reached for comment, Grant replied in a message: “Thank you for reaching out. I appreciate the opportunity, but I won’t be commenting at this time. I trust that the reporting will reflect the facts fairly and I wish the Town of Lunenburg and its staff all the best moving forward.”
Mayor Jamie Myra says “No comment” to whether town used non-disclosure agreement, declines to answer questions around MacDonald’s hiring
On Feb. 20, the Barnacle emailed Mayor Jamie Myra and Interim CAO Marvin MacDonald questions by email regarding Grant’s departure and MacDonald’s hiring.
Myra confirmed Grant is no longer employed by the Town of Lunenburg, but he declined to answer whether she was terminated, and whether she was offered a non-disclosure agreement.
He also declined to answer who decided to hire MacDonald, and any details on the timeline for when this decision was made.
Myra additionally refused to comment on whether the Town of Lunenburg has a policy regarding non-disclosure agreements, and whether he would share his views on the town using non-disclosure agreements for public servants.
The following questions were emailed to Myra on Feb. 20 and answered on the morning of Feb. 21:
Barnacle: “Is Hilary Grant currently employed by the Town of Lunenburg?”
Myra: “No, Hilary Grant is no longer employed with the Town of Lunenburg, we wish her all the best in her future endeavours, and we don’t discuss personal matters in public.”
Barnacle: “If Grant is no longer employed by the Town, was her employment terminated? If termination occurred, when was this decision made, who made this decision, and what were the reasons?”
Myra: “No comment”
Barnacle: “Was Grant offered a non-disclosure agreement?”
Myra: “No comment”
Barnacle: “When did the Town decide to hire MacDonald as interim CAO? Who made this decision?”
Myra: “He was hired in February after Hilary gave her notice to step down from that position at the end of February.”
Myra added in his reply: “There will be no further comments from the Town on this issue.”
In a follow-up email on the morning of Feb. 21, the Barnacle asked two follow-up questions:
“Does the Town of Lunenburg have a formal policy regarding when non-disclosure agreements are offered to departing employees?”
And: “As Mayor, what are your views on the use of NDAs by the Town of Lunenburg when dealing with public servants?”
Myra replied: “No comment”
In an additional email two minutes after this reply, Myra replied again, writing: “Our CAO will handle this from here.”
One hour later, MacDonald replied in the email thread, writing: “In response to your question on if the Town of Lunenburg has a policy on NDA’s for departing employees….. the Town does not have such a policy.”
“Personnel matter” has been discussed at five of six council meetings so far in private sessions
The Municipal Government Act allows for municipal councils to meet in private in camera sessions under certain conditions.
Since being sworn in in November 2024, the Town of Lunenburg Council has spent more time during council meetings in “in camera” sessions closed to the public, than in public sessions.
Recent council meeting agendas show that in all but one of the six meetings they have held so far, they have met in a closed session to discuss an agenda item titled “Personnel matter”.
While they have never publicly reported on any outcomes of any of these in camera meetings, the timing aligns with the end of Grant’s employment.
Council meeting agendas show how much time elapsed during the last meeting’s in camera session.
Over their six meetings, they have met in a public session for eight hours and thirty-one minutes.
They have been in private in camera sessions for ten hours and forty-four minutes.
This means 55.76 per cent of their meetings have been in sessions closed to the public.
| Meeting date | Start time | In Camera Start Time | Adjournment time | Time In Public | Time In Camera |
| 12/11/2024 | 06:00 | 06:13:00 | 07:57:00 | 00:13:00 | 01:44:00 |
| 19/11/2024 | 06:00 | 06:23:00 | 09:01:00 | 00:23:00 | 02:38:00 |
| 10/12/2024 | 06:00 | 07:59:00 | 10:45:00 | 01:59:00 | 02:46:00 |
| 14/01/2025 | 06:00 | 06:57:00 | 08:15:00 | 00:57:00 | 01:18:00 |
| 28/01/2025 | 06:00 | 07:48:00 | 09:47:00 | 01:48:00 | 01:59:00 |
| 11/02/2025 | 06:00 | 09:11:00 | 09:30:00 | 03:11:00 | 00:19:00 |
Town of Lunenburg the only municipality in Lunenburg County that does not publish a staff list
The Town of Lunenburg is the only municipality in Lunenburg County that does not publish a list indicating what staff roles exist, or who the staff are.
Bridgewater, Chester, Mahone Bay and the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg all publish complete staff directories on their websites.
The Town of Lunenburg publishes a “Staff Contacts” page that lists some staff in leadership positions but omits others. Today, it does not indicate who the CAO actually is, or what positions exist in any department.
In June 2024, the Town of Lunenburg declined to answer questions from the Barnacle about a senior policy role that was publicized by the Town for the first time on the day before the position’s application deadline.
A tender for CAO recruitment services published to the Town of Lunenburg website, that closed for applications at the end of January, indicates the Town aims to have a new candidate for CAO by April 2025.
Town Council did not address the outcome of the tender for CAO recruitment services at their Feb. 11 meeting, the only meeting held since the close of the tender. They have not published any statement indicating what qualifications or experience they are seeking in a new CAO.
Marvin MacDonald is the fifth person to serve as CAO for the Town of Lunenburg in just over three years.
Under previous Mayor Matt Risser, when long-time CAO Bea Renton retired in November 2021, and Kevin Malloy became interim CAO until July 2022 upon the hiring of Jamie Doyle.
Doyle stepped down in May 2024 under Mayor Jamie Myra, and Hilary Grant was appointed as Interim CAO.
This is a developing story.
I know that a lot of time and a lot of research went into this article. To what end ? Why spend all of that time calculating the number of hours the Lunenburg council has spent in in camera meetings ?
I realize this ‘paper’ concentrates on the news of the County of Lunenburg. However, I do wish you would look further afield at the atrocities that Tim Houston is committing in his effort to shut down the government of this province.
Surely instead of trying to dig up dirt about the mayor of Lunenburg and the councillors, your time would be better spent questioning the MLA’s of this area. Ask them why their leader is trying to control the auditor general, shut down the media, shut down discussion in the legislature, have a free-for-all opening up of our natural resources, etc. etc. Ask those MLAs how they can justify what Houston is doing.
Premier Houston’s actions will affect every citizen of this area and this province. Please stop with the nit-picking and instead, look at the damage he is doing to all of us.
And/or …you could investigate the plethora of B&Bs in Lunenburg and how they are causing a housing shortage.
Janet, I am a former resident of Blue Rocks, born in North Carolina but also have Canadian citizenship. I had to return to NC but my heart is still in NS. Premier Houston sounds like Trump and his conservative rhetoric. Keep encouraging your MLAS to stand up to this man. Don’t become like the US who is now controlled by a wanna be dictator. It is scary.
I agree, Janet. Some consequential stories are being missed in what looks like petty insinuations.
Thanks so much to the Barnacle for this kind of valuable local reporting.