Saint John Needs Tax Reform and Allain’s Plan Doesn’t Deliver
Originally posted by the Telegraph-Journal on December 17, 2021
Saint John is staring at a unique opportunity not witnessed in more than 50 years: The province has finally passed a comprehensive and long-overdue reform of the Local Governance Act.
Back in the 1960s, when local governance reform was previously undertaken by Premier Louis Robichaud, there was an intentional effort to “fix rural New Brunswick." The policies that were developed then and actions taken in the decades since have proven to be inherently detrimental to Saint John. Our borders are massive, we cannot tax different entities appropriately and we lack the governance tools to recover the costs associated with urban sprawl.
As a major industrial city, we have a high-risk assessment that requires major investments from our taxpayers to have roads, emergency services and infrastructure that appropriately mitigates that risk. It doesn’t come cheap, but the result is that our city produces 25 per cent of the GDP in this province with less than 10 per cent of its population. We continue to be a cash cow for this province as most taxes collected from industry head to Fredericton to be spent at the will of the provincial government.
A recent provincial study completed by Gardner Pinfold Consultants found Saint John bears an unfair burden on things like roads and emergency services for hosting both heavy industry and more than 20,000 daily commuters. It was found that to adequately recover the costs of roads, the surrounding region should be contributing about $3.8 million per year. Another $6.8 million ought to be contributed to emergency services.
Under former mayor Don Darling, this conversation took centre stage. Many of us began to understand the stark reality for what it truly was. The recent changes made by Local Government Minister Daniel Allain certainly amount to the most comprehensive municipal reforms in 50 years, but do they address the staggering realities that we as a city have been left to endure?
It doesn’t seem so.
We find ourselves left behind, with all our major asks being kicked to the next government or ignored. Taxing heavy machinery continues to go ignored, even though Alberta taxes it and shares revenues with its cities. Comprehensive tax reform is mentioned, but kicked down the road. There is also no mention of separating industry from business for tax classes.
Saint John needs major investments in livability spending. We have hundreds of public requests for traffic-calming, improved active transportation safety, accessibility improvements for transit and roads, and a need to dramatically increase affordable housing.
Some say the city is poorly managed and lacks fiscal discipline. This may have been true in the past, but the city has done an immense amount of work getting spending under control and fiscal policies in place. This was the agreement between the province and our city in the “Sustaining Saint John” deal: That if we get these done, the province will deliver comprehensive tax reform by 2022. Minister Allain is now stating that this won’t happen until 2025, conveniently after the next election cycle. Rural New Brunswick is getting the focus and the lion's share of beneficial reforms once again, it seems.
As a person not originally from Saint John, I continue to be baffled by these realities. I grew up down the road in Blacks Harbour. For 30 years, that village has been asking for help from the province as it struggles to bear the costs of the regional arena, even though the majority of its users came from outside the village. Minister Allain is now amalgamating St. George, Blacks Harbour, Beaver Harbour, part of Back Bay and part of Pennfield. This will come with a new council and mayor and shared costs for things like the arena. It’s difficult to understand why the province would go through such an effort to enact positive reforms for these small communities, yet leave Saint John's concerns virtually untouched.
It turns out it is possible to be excited and discouraged at the same time. As a New Brunswicker, these reforms are exciting, long overdue and could reshape many things positively.
As a Saint Johner, however, I’m deeply discouraged. We continue to have major struggles with unemployment, poverty and old infrastructure that the province seems to be suggesting is not their problem. Let’s not forget, Saint John has one of the lowest housing price assessments and household GDPs in the country. Meanwhile, it is next to Rothesay, which is Canada’s eighth wealthiest community.
It’s wonderful that our region produces so much wealth for New Brunswick. However, if the province is serious about supporting our growth potential, with the competitive advantage we have with Port Saint John and major industry, we need the comprehensive reforms that have been agreed to – and we need them now.
Sources:
SustainingSaintJohn-August2019.pdf (gnb.ca)
9. Gardner Pinfold - Greater Saint John Regional Task Force Analysis.pdf
Richest Postal Codes Canada- CanadaFAQ.ca