Daniel Allain (Staff photo)
Municipal reform has been talked about in New Brunswick for almost 30 years with numerous studies done.
But the Higgs government is making it a priority with Daniel Allain, the minister responsible for local governance reform, leading a new path ahead.
“If we don’t move forward, we’ll lose opportunities, we’ll lose infrastructure and even worse – we’ll lose services,” noted Allain.
The province has 104 municipal governments, 236 local service districts and 12 regional service commissions which are large numbers compared to other provinces like Nova Scotia which has only 50 local governments.
Despite having so many municipal entities in the province, Allain adds almost one-third of residents have no locally-elected representatives.
The first phase of the reform process is now underway with stakeholders being engaged and residents will be asked for their input this spring when a discussion paper is released.
Stakeholder and public feedback will become part of a white paper which will be complete by the end of this year.
More information about local governance reform can be found HERE.
