Mayoral Candidates Talk Growth At Chamber Forum

Two of the four Saint John candidates for mayor discussed issues related to business and economic growth for the city on Tuesday.

Candidates Donna Reardon and Mel Vincent joined Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce CEO David Duplissea for the chamber’s Mayoral Forum.

The other two candidates, Darrell Bastarache and Howard Yeomans did not attend.

Questions were provided to the candidates beforehand and covered topics such as property taxes, affordable housing, wages, AIM, regionalization and more.

Here are some of the highlights:

Continuing Saint John’s momentum

The candidates were asked how what they would do as mayor to continue the momentum the city and council have made over the last five years and beyond.

Reardon said the city should continue to build, tweak, and implement the plans and strategies that it has previously researched and developed, like PlanSJ and the neighbourhood plan for the South Central Peninsula.

“The other thing I plan on doing when I’m dialoguing with all of these entities is say, ‘how can I be part of your success?’ What can I do?’ I’m willing to listen and hear what people need me to do, what they need me to support for their success. That’s where I am. We need more dialogue as well,” she said.

“I think we do have that momentum. We need to keep it going and that’s another reason why I’m running because I don’t want to drop this ball because this is a big ship. You don’t turn it around in a few days. It’s been a long process, it’s been nine years of putting that foundation together, and there’s accountability back to citizens that’s the use of resources you have and taxpayer dollars, all of the policies. Now you have to … stay committed to the plan and go forward.”

Vincent said though there’s bound to be some growing pains with a new council if elected mayor he plans to follow the fiscal plan laid out by outgoing mayor Don Darling.

“I 100 percent agree with the long term fiscal plan that has been laid down by this council and I particularly congratulate Mayor Darling for establishing that plan. It’s based on a solid footing, even though a chunk of it started before the pandemic it’s still been very fiscally wise and developed and a great framework for us to build on,” he said.

“If I’m elected mayor I will continue to follow that plan. It’s solid and there’s no reason to change it. Getting up to speed and knowing those things, though I haven’t sat at that table, my involvement in our community, particularly with Develop Saint John, I’m ready.”

Where would they invest?

Duplissea asked both candidates how they would invest city money to make Saint John more attractive.

Vincent said he would find where Saint John’s strengths and weakness are compared with its regional competition (Moncton, Fredericton, Charlottetown and Halifax) and determine where to invest based on that.

“Ultimately I also look at the process of growing our city just the same as I do in running my business. I need to know who my competitors are, what their strengths and weaknesses are and how I can best position my company to facilitate and get the results that we need. I think [that’s] a part of the budgeting process. The reality is we got multiple layers of communities that we can compete with.

Reardon, who sits on the regional planning committee, says they have commissioned four reports by firms to look at the components of what makes a successful city. She also said it’s time to recheck in with citizen to see what they want.

“I was recently reviewing the PlaySJ [report] and it said at the time, and that was put together in 2012, parks and recreation was low on the priority lists for citizens and roads and snow ploughing was high. But that’s always been our mechanism,” she said.

“We’re almost 10 years into that now, I say it’s time to check that barometer again and look and see what do citizens want. Where do they want us to spend our money? I think that would be a good start for it. But also, we need the data of where we should be spending our money to get the growth that we want.”

Rent Control

The candidates were asked about their thoughts on rent control, as the city experiences rising rents, particularly in its uptown core.

Reardon said she would be open to exploring such policies with the province.

“I would be interested in supporting the province to explore that issue and having a dialogue on that issue. I know the cost of building is X and if you want developers to come, they need to make money, so how do you balance that with rent controls?” she said.

“That’s a big issue. That’s something Saint John wouldn’t solve on its own, but absolutely with partnerships, it’s something we could be advocating for. At least looking at and asking for the province to explore that issue for that.”

Vincent said he isn’t in favour of rent control and says adding supply to the city’s rental market through new development would cause the rents to go down.

“When you look particularly to the U.S. where rent control has been in place, it’s one of those topics that’s usually led to more derelict buildings and more absentee landlords and a greater deterioration of our housing inventory,” he said.

“If we start manipulating the system with bad policy we will get bad results so I think it’s critical if we stay the course.”

Police and Firefighter Wages

Wages for the city’s police and fire departments which currently takes up a significant portion of its budget has been a hot topic in the election campaign. Reardon and Vincent were asked how they would deal with the wages in the police and fire departments.

Vincent said the wage escalation policy in the city’s fiscal plan, which would tie wage increases to the city’s economic growth, needs to be followed.

“The reality is our financial situation is a challenge. In our long-term fiscal plan, we have laid out a clear wage policy that the city can afford. Until we grow our economy and ultimately, that’s what everything comes back to, we got little room to work with,” said Vincent.

“We need to show the value and respect of our employees and what they bring to the table, but the reality is at this present time we’re in a pretty rough spot that doesn’t allow us to do things. The employees know that. They’re going to advocate and challenge us for more to make sure we’re being fair to them, but at the end of the day, the long-term fiscal plan and the policy laid out there needs to be followed and maintained or there’s little hope for our future.

Reardon also said the wage escalation policy needs to be followed.

“Every citizen needs to understand their role is in moving Saint John forward and at this point in time before we have that growth, we need to work together, we need to work with our unions and our unions need to understand where we are and why we are presenting this wage escalation policy,” she said.

AIM

The candidates were asked if they would encourage Port Saint John to move AIM Recycling, whose facility on its property on the west side has experienced many explosions and disturbances.

Both candidates said they would like to see AIM move.

“The West Side refurbishment of the port is a huge game-changer for Saint John and right now I would say that AIM is impeding a lot of opportunity for the Port. That’s up to the Port to figure out what they’re going to do with them,” said Reardon, adding that as city councillor she’s gotten many complaints about the facility.

“Wrong location for that product and that industry. It just doesn’t fit with what is there,” said Vincent. “Unfortunately, some of it is outside their control and I can understand and appreciate the complexity of their business and not knowing what could be tucked away in a vehicle. I wish we could have a better dialogue with the company to see if there are solutions, but it appears that at all levels that there’s little talk that could be had.”

Amalgamation

The idea of Saint John amalgamating with the nearby towns of Rothesay and Quispamsis has been talked about for decades. Both candidates said they didn’t see amalgamation happening anytime soon, but did see ways to regionalize some services.

“Making the turf bigger doesn’t solve the problem and I don’t believe in discussions that I have with local government that amalgamation is on the table. I don’t fundamentally believe they’re prepared to go down that road,” said Vincent.

“However, regionalization, that kind of efficiency is what drive results and I’m all in on a really solid regionalization plan. We have opportunities with fire, with police, with planning, with building inspection, with community recreational services, there are all kinds of avenues we can go down that are truly beneficial to our community.”

Reardon says she views regionalization as one of the biggest opportunities for Saint John.

“I see us as such diverse communities as well and I think working as a region we’re stronger. There’s a lot of efficiencies you could find there. I look at roads, I look at waste management . . . There would be efficiencies in the administration of all of those services if you go for regionalization,” she said.

“Then you would have more buying power too as a bigger unit. I think you could reduce costs with that and you could improve the service delivery to citizens with it.

You can watch the full forum below:

Cherise Letson is the associate editor of Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.