Municipal Reform from Two Perspectives
https://tj.news/story/101599387By Brent Harris and Bruce Dryer
Brent Harris Since starting my tenure as one of Saint John’s newest council members I have had an opportunity to dive deeper into the issues of local governance. The problems associated with NB’s local governance profile have been well documented for as long as both Bruce and I have been alive (Brent born in 1989, Bruce in 1987). From a Saint John perspective, there is a narrative (that I believe to be true) that our city exists within a system that has subsidized urban sprawl through an archaic system of taxation and funding. This system has hollowed out our city core for decades and created an inverse property tax assessment that is not found in other urban centers. Most cities have more expensive properties the closer you get to the core, not so in SJ with our massive 350+ km2 boarders. When the province “fixed” rural New Brunswick in the 60’s, just 10 years later we saw Saint John’s population start to drop significantly. By doing this the province subsidized sub-urban living, provincialized most of the tax revenue, and left SJ vulnerable on multiple fronts.
For cities to thrive anywhere it seems to hinge on regional collaboration. With a resident base of 70,000+ to represent, I understand that a “win-win” situation is not always possible, but I passionately believe that there are numerous opportunities for all jurisdictions to come out ahead with this new municipal reform agenda. Saint john does not currently have the tools that other cities in Canada have with which to pursue a growth agenda. We also have legacy infrastructure built for a larger population and the presence of heavy industry which no other city in NB must deal with. We lack tools to pursue cooperation on regional cost sharing and a property assessment system that gives us a comparable amount of tax revenue when compared to other cities in Canada. What we do have in Saint John, however, is representation. When we compare the realities of our neighbors down the road in communities like Brown’s Flats, we have considerable representation to enact change on our desired outcomes. There is an opportunity here for cities and Local Service District’s (LSD’s) alike to come together to pursue a better collective outcome.
Bruce Dryer: LSD’s make up 1/3 of New Brunswick’s population. There is certainly a lifestyle of choice that comes with living in a LSD. Property taxes are low but so are the effects of government change. Historically speaking when NB was a more agrarian province, this model made sense. However, with the growing needs and expectations for service of many people in rural NB, many are calling for increased representation and a new governance deal to be able to manage their own budgets, set their tax rates, and have an overall sense of enfranchisement within their community. When I look at our community along Route 102 on the way to Gagetown, there is a unique level of engagement at our River Road Hub Centre. This supports families, the elderly, and the needs for overall community engagement. Right now we have (very few) governance tools available to us to fund new initiatives, consider services as a community, and pursue a united vision for our community.
With regards to the process that we are now engaged in around local governance reform, we feel that LSDs are deeply disadvantaged. Because we have so few tools available to us as a community it feels very much like a process we cannot participate in. As a community we do not have paid staff that can produce reports or engagement pieces like other communities do but we are expected to engage in this process just like everyone else does. The meetings we attend for this process review initiated by the province provide us with few answers and even fewer resources to build our case and find our place within the proposed solutions that are being discussed. Many in our community just want things left alone but there are also many of us that realize a change could be good for us all, if it considers us all.
Brent: As many have pointed out, this topic has been studied to death. A recent Op-ed in the Telegraph Journal by Jon and Zack Taylor give us an achievable game plan to reduce our jurisdictions from over 400 LSD’s, municipalities, and cities to more like 50. The question will be, who gets to opt out from which new initiatives and under what premise? If we have too loose of a new system, we risk having municipalities opt out of regional cooperation when it is convenient. The new model runs the risk of giving everyone something they did not really need or want if we are missing leadership and foresight into what is best for the regions of our province that have the most potential.
There is a correlation of growth the decades following municipal reforms in more rural areas of British Columbia like the Central Okanagan Regional District (1967-2006) and in Nova Scotia (1997-2000). Nova Scotia had a nominal GDP growth rate of 3.8% despite a drop in population growth following its municipal restructuring in 1998. It appears that municipal reforms can be reliably predictive of provincial economic growth, something we all need.