Give NBers Time To Digest Reforms: People’s Alliance

New Brunswick’s local governance reform bill is expected to come before the legislature sometime in December.

The 68-page white paper introducing wide-sweeping changes to local governance was only released last week.

That has the leader of the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick questioning whether residents will have enough time to digest the information.

“I want to urge the minister [of local governance reform] to not lose the public appetite for change by pushing forward a complex bill in such a short amount of time without allowing local leaders and citizens to offer changes and amendments,” Kris Austin said in the legislature on Thursday.

The party leader said the proposed legislation is expected to be hundreds if not thousands of pages in length.

Among the biggest changes is reducing the number of local government entities in the province from 340 to 90.

Several municipalities will be merged into larger local governments while other communities will be expanded to include parts of surrounding local services districts.

Austin questioned why the government would spend more than a year consulting with the public and creating the white paper but only giving residents and communities a couple of weeks to digest it before introducing legislation.

“I want to be clear, I’m not asking for the minister to can the white paper. I’m simply asking for an allowance of input before sweeping changes take place,” he said.

In the hours after the white paper’s release, Austin said the plan contained many changes that will result in both positive and negatives for New Brunswickers.

The leader said with the incorporation of local services districts into local governments or rural districts, they are concerned about how services will be delivered and the tax rates they will be paying.

“We have no problem with amalgamation, where it makes sense, provided there is a balanced reflection between tax rates and services received,” Austin said in a news release.

The party said it was also disappointed by the lack of action on taxation and changes to the policing model.