Break It Up? Tax The Suburbs? Saint John Must Consider Bold Actions To Fix Finances
Jack Keir is a resident of Grand Bay-Westfield and former MLA and Liberal cabinet minister.
The city of Saint John has made some bad decisions over the years. Everyone can agree on that. Moncton and Fredericton have made bad decisions too but they don’t see themselves in the financial situation that Saint John finds itself.
We must ask ourselves why that is so. It’s easy for the critics to say Saint John put themselves into this situation, let them get themselves out. I would argue that the narrative that Saint John is to blame for their financial situation isn’t entirely true.
Previous provincial governments put them in the financial situation they are in today. Two amalgamations, one in 1967 and one in 1998, have left Saint John with a geographical area two and a half times larger than Moncton with a population of roughly 65,000 people to pay for it.
Therefore, Saint John has to provide fire, police, road asphalt, snow plowing, building inspection services and community centres to a much larger area than Moncton or Fredericton.
Saint John has done a great job for more than 30 years trying to keep their heads above water. They have been cutting for years and they are prepared to cut more. However, those cuts are getting very close to the bone.
Saint John also has, by far and away, the largest footprint of heavy industry in the province and the provincial government takes almost all of that revenue out of the city.
There was a task force set up in early 2018 that consisted of senior civil servants, the premier at the time, Brian Gallant, and senior city officials. The mandate was to recognize these issues and come up with solutions to address them. Unfortunately for Saint John, the government changed and the task force ended.
Previously, provincial governments believed that Saint John was responsible for their financial situation and therefore could get themselves out of the mess. This current government has said similar things.
This is just not true. Saint John deserves credit for continually getting over hurdles for the last 30 years by cutting and streamlining. The Gallant government understood and it is why the task force was set up. Bring real solutions to the table.
The Higgs government, unfortunately, continues to use the false narrative that Saint John must cut to succeed. It’s time to unshackle the city. It’s time to allow the city to grow and prosper the way they were meant to be before the provincial government started to put the shackles on Saint John.
It’s interesting that we have provincial ministers from outside Saint John that tell the city to cut and they ignore decisions made in the past. What’s more interesting is that we have local MLAs representing the citizens of Saint John that back their government and give oxygen to a false narrative instead of fighting on behalf of their city.
Amalgamation is not the answer
How do we find solutions to these issues? I can tell you amalgamation is not the answer. Amalgamation is what got us into the situation we are in today. We don’t need to grow the geographical area of the city further. If anything, we need to annex outlying rural areas of Saint John to either neighbouring LSDs or towns.
Saint John should concentrate on populated areas of Saint John. We need changes to how the revenues flow in the Greater Saint John area. We need outlying areas to pay a portion of their property tax to Saint John to further support the infrastructure they use every day.
Folks who live outside city borders ( I am one of them) must understand that their towns would quickly shrink if Saint John dies. Everyone in the region, including Local Service Districts must be part of the solution. I’m not sure how many pennies on the tax rate we in the outlying areas should pay, but I do know the task-force was studying that and the information should be readily available.
As well, we need to allow Saint John Energy to grow and prosper and allow the city to take a dividend from the utility. Saint John Energy is a diamond for Saint John that many other municipalities in the province do not have. They provide electricity to city residents 10 percent cheaper than do other areas. That is a big advantage for Saint John that most folks don’t recognize. We need to grow that utility.
There were a total of 30 plus recommendations from the task force just before the drop of the writ (election call) in August of 2018. Many of those recommendations I am pleased to see the current city manager and Mayor are now trying to convince the provincial government to approve.
None of the solutions can be accomplished by just the towns, LSDs and the city sitting at the table. Not one of them. The province is the sole decision-maker. Don’t let them off the hook from making the tough, right decision.
As a region, there has never been a more important time to stand shoulder to shoulder with our city and finally right the ship and get our city on course. Make the tough decisions, move forward, and let’s see what our city can really be.
Huddle publishes commentaries from groups and individuals on important business issues facing the Maritimes. These commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Huddle. To submit a commentary for consideration, contact editor Mark Leger: [email protected].