• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Saturday, January 28, 2023
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
  • Articles en français
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Videos
  • NB debrief
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home New Brunswick

Sackville to merge with Dorchester and LSDs in sweeping municipal reform plan

by Bruce Wark
November 19, 2021
Reading Time: 7min read
Sackville to merge with Dorchester and LSDs in sweeping municipal reform plan

New Brunswick's Local Governance Reform Minister Daniel Allain announcing municipal reforms.

The New Brunswick government has announced municipal reform plans that would drastically reduce the number of local government entities in the province from 340 to 90, with a new total of 78 municipalities and 12 rural districts.

Under the plan, the Town of Sackville would merge with the Village of Dorchester and the surrounding local service districts, that include the communities of British Settlement, Westcock and Wood Point, to form one of  the 78 municipalities with an estimated population of 8,352 and an estimated tax base of $869.8 million:

The reforms, announced on November 18 by Local Governance Reform Minister Daniel Allain, would also merge Port Elgin with its surrounding areas:

The province is planning to expand the mandate of the 12 regional service commissions from their current role of collecting garbage and overseeing municipal land-use planning to coordinating economic development, tourism promotion, community development, regional transportation (community transit) and recreational infrastructure cost-sharing.

In addition, the regional service commissions would have a mandate to establish Public Safety Committees on policing and fire protection:

“We’re here for the next generation and this is why we’re moving today with this bold reform,” Allain said during an online news conference.

He added that reform is badly needed since the province has changed so much since the major municipal reforms of the 1960s.

“Change is long overdue in our province,” Allain said referring to the 65-page government white paper he released on November 18. He said the white paper outlines the changes that will be enshrined in provincial legislation the government plans to introduce next month.

Municipal elections

In combined municipalities such as Sackville and Dorchester, plans call for an election next November so that the new council could take office on January 1, 2023.

The province says it will appoint transition teams to come up with structuring the new councils and drawing ward boundaries as well as naming the new municipality. The teams will also oversee the hiring of a clerk and a chief administrative officer who would be in place by September 1, 2022.

On the thorny question of municipal tax increases, especially for LSD residents, Allain insisted people will pay only for the municipal services they receive.

He said the province is considering options such as reducing provincial property tax rates, revisiting the cost of roads that the province maintains in rural areas and giving municipalities more ways of raising revenues.

Mesheau responds

Sackville’s mayor said today’s provincial announcement that the town would be merged with the Village of Dorchester and surrounding local service districts came as something of a surprise.

“We anticipated some changes,” Shawn Mesheau told CHMA reporter Erica Butler in a telephone interview. “We probably weren’t aware of the aggressiveness in regards to those changes,” he added.

“Changes were anticipated, but maybe not to this extent.”

Mesheau said town staff are analyzing the provincial white paper so that council can be properly briefed on it before deciding what, if any steps, need to be taken.

In July, Mesheau sent a letter to Daniel Allain that firmly opposed merging Sackville with surrounding areas.

“Sackville does not feel amalgamation is a realistic solution,” the letter said, “and would object to any forced amalgamation.”

However, in his CHMA interview, the mayor seemed more conciliatory.

“We’re just pleased to see that the province is moving forward on the local governance reform,” he said.

“Like I said, it’s a very detailed document and it’s one that we’ll have to get a better understanding on.”

Mesheau said an expanded co-ordinating role for the Southeast Regional Service Commission, especially on economic development and tourism, is “a step in the right direction” and he suggested he’d be interested in running for mayor in a larger municipality if there’s another election next fall.

Politically risky

A professor at Mount Allison University, who specializes in municipal politics, says that if it does press ahead with municipal reform, the Higgs government risks short-term unpopularity and the likelihood of defeat in the next provincial election.

“I thought that this government would either make major changes in health care or they would make major changes in municipal government and not both,” Geoff Martin said in a telephone interview.

“And, I think they chose municipal government, I’m assuming because there’s less allegiance to the current municipal system in New Brunswick,” he added.

“This is more than I expected,” Martin said. “It is a transformation on the scale of the Equal Opportunity Program and the changes in the mid 1960s.”

He said that as the Finn report on municipal reform showed in 2008, there’s a recognition, at least among elites in New Brunswick, that changes are needed.

“This is highly ambitious and politically possibly foolhardy for the government to be committed to this, but on the other hand, maybe with Mr. Higgs…maybe there’s something he wants to say, ‘Well, I made a political sacrifice, but it was for something that had to be done.'”

Bruce Wark worked in broadcasting and journalism education for more than 35 years. He was at CBC Radio for nearly 20 years as senior editor of network programs such as The World at Six and World Report. He currently writes for The New Wark Times where this story first appeared on November 18, 2021.

Tags: Bruce WarkDaniel Allainlocal governancelocal governance reformlocal governmentmunicipalities
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

‘We need to push back’: El Jones calls for prison abolition as province pushes ahead with $32M jail
New Brunswick

‘We need to push back’: El Jones calls for prison abolition as province pushes ahead with $32M jail

January 6, 2023

As the New Brunswick government pressed ahead last fall with its controversial plan for a $32-million jail in Fredericton, poet, activist...

Mount Allison prof’s new book examines corporate plunder in Canada and abroad
Canada

Mount Allison prof’s new book examines corporate plunder in Canada and abroad

September 13, 2022

The Canadian state was built on the violent dispossession of Indigenous Peoples and the theft of their resources… Given this...

Province releases slew of documents on Sackville’s AIL pipe plant
Environment

Province releases slew of documents on Sackville’s AIL pipe plant

September 3, 2022

The provincial government has released more details about its decision not to require an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the...

Irving’s appointment to head of Postmedia board not welcome news, says prof
Media

Irving’s appointment to head of Postmedia board not welcome news, says prof

August 9, 2022

Reports that the Irvings had given up their New Brunswick newspaper empire have suddenly proven premature with the appointment of...

Load More

Recommended

A Train in the Night that shoulda never been there: Seeking justice for Lac-Mégantic

A Train in the Night that shoulda never been there: Seeking justice for Lac-Mégantic

13 hours ago
Angry overflow crowd confronts education minister over French immersion reforms [audio]

Angry overflow crowd confronts education minister over French immersion reforms [audio]

4 days ago
Small modular nuclear reactors are unsafe: CRED-NB [video] 

Small modular nuclear reactors are unsafe: CRED-NB [video] 

2 days ago
IN MEMORIAM: Nell Toussaint: July 14, 1969–January 9, 2023

IN MEMORIAM: Nell Toussaint: July 14, 1969–January 9, 2023

4 days ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In