It’s hoped that Saint John council will have its priorities in place by the end of the month according to city manager Jeff Trail.
There was another brainstorming session on these priorities held on Tuesday afternoon involving mayor and council. We asked mayor Don Darling whether there was a time crunch to get these priorities finalized with the city budget looming.
“It’s very busy,” says Darling. “This concept that we meet as council every couple of weeks, we haven’t stopped meeting since I arrived, we were sworn in on May 24, so I think there’s yeah we’re feeling like there’s a lot of work to do between now and the end of the month.”
The draft priorities that council looked at were growth, a safe vibrant city, quality services and financial discipline. Darling says he believes people are looking for the city of Saint John to be run more efficiently and to deliver more value to taxpayers.
“So all of those things are finding their way into our priorities,” he says. “So when we finish here at the end of the month, or around the end of the month, you’ll see those themes that people todl us in the public engagement sessions will be loud and clear in our priorities.”
One potential measure for success in growth is the poverty rate, which deputy mayor Shirley McAlary took some issue with, saying that as a council it’s impossible for them to reduce poverty. She says they can work towards reducing it, but that other levels of government need to be working with them otherwise its not going to happen.
She says she doesn’t want to have a priority she knows they can’t accomplish on their own.
The next priority setting session is October 24.
