A decade after calling for extensive amalgamations, Finn report author sees few changes

The Tracadie regional municipality was considered a model of how New Brunswick communities could amalgamate without provincial intervention. 

But now a petition is circulating calling for a plebiscite to revoke the 2014 merger of 18 local service districts with the town of Tracadie-Sheila.

Former Tracadie councillor Norma McGraw said promises of no tax increases and economic development in the amalgamated local service districts were broken. Mayor Denis Losier also said the promised upsides haven't materialized.

"I think they pulled the wool over citizens' eyes to get us to vote," McGraw, one of several councillors who resigned last year, told Radio-Canada. 

Jean-Guy Finn, a former senior New Brunswick civil servant who led a commission on reforming local governance, has followed what's happened in Tracadie. He said he's not surprised given changes he recommended in 2008 have not happened.

Finn's controversial report found the province's local governance structure wasn't sustainable. He called on the province to slash New Brunswick's municipalities and local service districts to 53 from 371.

Ten years and two months after his report, the province is far from that target. New Brunswick has 237 local service districts, eight cities, 26 towns, 61 villages, eight rural communities and one regional municipality. 

Finn said little has changed under four successive provincial governments.

The changes include tweaks to the municipal funding formula and creating 12 regional service commissions to handle garbage and regional land-use planning. 

"This is a reflection of a lack of leadership on behalf of the provincial government," Finn said.

The continuation of a splintered system has led to more sprawl, undesirable development at the fringes of municipalities, and costly provision of services as the province's population ages, he said.

Report shelved

Then-premier Shawn Graham shelved Finn's report immediately after its release, citing a weak economy and the estimated $88-million cost to implement it.

Finn believes the reforms are more relevant than when he recommended them.

Tracadie isn't the only location where strains with local governance have continued or emerged since Finn's report.

The provincial government dismissed the board of Regional Service Commission 8 this year after the group of Sussex-area mayors and local service district representatives couldn't agree on a waste collection budget.

Disputes over getting areas outside a municipality to pay for community infrastructure have flared in Sussex, Campbellton, Fredericton and the Saint John area.

Finn said it shows the need for change.

"When you add all this up, it becomes obvious something will have to be done," Finn said.

Adam Lordon, Miramichi mayor and president of the Cities of New Brunswick Association, told CBC last year that the group wants a "conversation" on the funding issue.

More talk planned

Jeff Carr, the minister of Environment and Local Government, said the province plans to bring people from rural and urban New Brunswick together this year to talk about local governance and municipal powers.

"The people of New Brunswick who live in these areas are going to have to decide once we get all the options on the table and all the facts on the table," Carr said.  

He said the government isn't afraid to make tough choices, but said amalgamation can't be forced.

Finn says leadership required

Finn said it will take leadership by the province to make any changes at this point.

"Unless we proceed comprehensively in reforming local government, I don't think we're going to accomplish much," Finn said. "We cannot just move in an ad hoc fashion like we are now because we seem to be making the situation worse rather than improving it."

Successive governments have adopted an approach that aids locally-run citizen groups considering amalgamation rather than forcing change.

Many of those attempts have failed. 

Creating rural communities from local services districts around Sussex, the Nashwaak and York regions have either been rejected by voters or aborted before ballots cast.

Objections raised have included loss of rural identity, tax rates and changes to land use rules.

"People weren't ready for it," David Sweeney, chair of the group studying the idea in the Nashwaak area, said in 2017.

'Amalgamation is a non-starter'

Last year, the former Liberal government rejected Saint John's request to study amalgamation with other communities in the region, citing a lack of support outside the city.

"Amalgamation is a non-starter, full-stop, end of story," Quispamsis Mayor Gary Clark said last year.

Merging the Greater Moncton's three communities has been a thorny topic.

Each have municipal staff, fire department, mayors and a total of 25 councillors. One ward in Moncton, Ward 3, has more than 22,000 residents, almost as many people as Dieppe's total population.

The mayors of Riverview and Dieppe told CBC last year their residents aren't interested in the idea, though a 2017 poll suggested 59 per cent of respondents in the region support amalgamation.

Tri-community mayors point to services already delivered in tandem: RCMP, transit, water and sewer.

"I don't think that there's a lot of opportunities beyond what we're already doing," Dieppe Mayor Yvon Lapierre said last year.