There appears to be rumblings of discontent when it comes to Enterprise Saint John, the regional development agency which receives funding from five municipalities.
Saint John mayor Don Darling is the chair of the regional oversight committee for ESJ and in a release, he says that it can’t say for sure at this point whether communities are getting a good return on their investments.
He also says they’re concerned that it hasn’t yet seen a defined work plan from ESJ.
This comes after the town of Quispamsis decided to cut its funding to ESJ in half and we spoke to CEO Steve Carson about that, and asked him whether there was concern about other municipalities following suit.
“My concern isn’t as much about the money as it is about we need to be working as one team, and we need to understand what our respective roles are and have trust and confidence in how we’re measuring our results,” Carson says.
He told us that you can’t point to one organization and say it’s totally responsible for growing our community.
“It’s gonna take a team effort, and that’s when we’ve really succeeded in the past when we’ve worked solidly together as a team.”
Saint John, Quispamsis, Rothesay, Grand Bay-Westfield and St. Martins all contribute to ESJ.
