City council voted overwhelmingly against selling Saint John Energy at Monday night’s meeting.
Councillor Greg Norton put forward a motion to nix talk of a sale, saying the utility is too valuable to taxpayers for the municipality to part with.
“Saint John Energy provides one of the most reliable energy distribution systems in Canada, and has some of the highest customer service satisfaction ratings of any utility,” Norton said.
The meeting was largely spent discussing the city manager’s sustainability report. Before arriving at the report, which aims to fix a $10-million deficit and create future earnings for the city, councillors voted to strike down the sale of the city’s power utility.
Councillor Blake Armstrong was one of nine councillors who voted to veto the sale. He said if this council were to part with Saint John Energy, they would all be voted out during the next election.
“The only thing we have to do as a council is get the province to change the legislation so we can get dividends and out of Saint John Energy,” Armstrong said.
City Manager John Collin drafted the sustainability report, which recommended chopping $5 million in city staffing and payroll. He says there was a misconception that city staff wanted to part with the utility.
“We never had as our preferred option the selling of Saint John Energy,” he said. “We worked very hard to get the language that’s in our three-point plan, and the language clearly articulates the preference of the city is to enable the growth agenda.”
One recommendation Collin’s report did make was imposing a tax on heavy trucks which use municipal roads.
The controversial heavy truck permit was estimated to bring in $1 million annually and was met with heavy opposition from industry.
J.D. Irving, Ltd. described the proposed permit as an additional burden which makes the city less competitive while the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) group said it is a double-dip on the industry.
Council voted to strike down the tax and filed a further motion asking the city manager to find an additional $1 million in city payroll to make up the deficit.