Officials concerned over proposed restructuring of NB municipalities

Bigger does not necessarily mean better. That is the consensus from municipal officials in the Tantramar area who are raising concerns over the key recommendations brought to the table last month by Jean-Guy Finn in his long-awaited report on the future of local governance in New Brunswick.
Sackville Mayor Pat Estabrooks said the report, if implemented, would bring transformational change to the communities that make up the Tantramar region - and that may not necessarily be good news.
"I'm glad that the government will not be implementing this immediately so that we can have more time to study this," said Estabrooks.
In his report, Finn calls for a massive restructuring of New Brunswick municipalities and local service districts (LSDs).
Citing over-governance at the local level, he recommends combining the province's 101 municipalities and 267 LSDs into 53 municipalities, which would then be grouped into 12 regional service districts. These regional service districts would oversee the new municipalities and deliver planning, solid waste management, policing, emergency measures and economic development services, all in an attempt to avoid unnecessary duplication of services.
Estabrooks said she disagrees with the idea that centralizing services in this way would be a "workable solution" and plans to work with her fellow mayors and LSD representatives in the Tantramar region to come up with a viable alternative to propose to the government.
"We, as a riding, should look at this whole report and see how we can work together and how we might be able to make this work," she said.
According to Finn's report, the Tantramar communities - one town, two villages and nine local service districts - would be merged together as one of nine municipal entities within the proposed Regional Service District 7.
Greg Martin, chair of the local LSD committee serving the Aulac, Pointe de Bute and Jolicure area, said many residents in his area are unsure of whether amalgamating rural communities into larger municipal units will prove beneficial in the long run.
"Not everyone is convinced that bigger is always better," he said.
Currently, the local service districts are under the provincial government's jurisdiction and the LSD committees' role is to simply make suggestions on local services and issues.
Martin acknowledged that under the new proposed system, the local service districts would gain a stronger voice by having representation on one of the newly-elected municipal councils. But the forced amalgamation would likely come at the price of higher taxes.
"Sure there are benefits to being part of a bigger group. But what we really don't know is whether the folks who want to live out in the country will still be able to continue living the same lifestyle they've always enjoyed," he said.
For example, Martin said farmers who currently live in rural communities could be forced to pay higher taxes for their land under their new municipality's tax regime, possibly resulting in the closures of some farms.
Martin said although the Finn report has been shelved for the time being, he believes the government still plans to make changes to the municipal landscape over the next couple years and hopes communities will be prepared for the impacts.
Dorchester Mayor Mel Goodland said he thinks forced amalgamations are likely to result in conflicts over boundaries and shared services.
"I'm not really sure how it's going to work," he said. "I think there would be a lot of problems and a lot of issues that would be involved. It certainly won't be easy."
Goodland said Nova Scotia, for example, has experienced the creation of unitary regional municipalities in the greater Halifax, Cape Breton and the Queens County areas, combining both urban and rural populations under one local government entity.
"But people still identify with their old boundaries."
He explained it would probably take decades to sort out the logistics involved in regionalizing all the towns, villages, LSDs and cities in New Brunswick.
"It's certainly not going to happen in one generation," he said. "I think it would be a long, hard process and I think it'll stir up a lot of people."
The report, Building Stronger Local Governments and Regions: An Action Plan for the Future of Local Governance in New Brunswick, was developed over the last year by Finn, who was appointed commissioner on the future of local governance. The report builds on more than 25 studies conducted on various aspects of local governance in New Brunswick since 1967.
When tabling his report, Finn said his recommendations will build a local governance system that "better reflects New Brunswick's social and economic conditions; empowers local communities and regions; allows for greater integration; is more accountable; and is able to compete with the best in the country because it runs efficiently."
Finn's report also covers taxation policies, local and provincial government responsibilities and restructuring of funding arrangements.
It recommends the abolishment of the current unconditional grant formula in favour of a new equalization formula to address disparities between the recommended 53 new municipalities.
Finn is also calling for the elimination of the current non-owner-occupied property tax and the reduction of the non-residential property tax to $1.50 per $100 of assessment from the current $2.25.
With a pricetag of about $88 million to implement the recommendations, the Liberal government announced it would be shelving the report indefinitely, declaring it too expensive to implement in these tough economic times.