https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brunswick-municipal-reform-elections-1.6605572
Elections coming up for 62 newly formed, amalgamated communities
Last day for candidates to sign up is Oct. 28; election day is Nov. 28
Major centres like Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John, and some other smaller municipalities, won't be voting, but 50 new municipalities and 12 rural districts will be holding elections for the first time on Nov. 28.
Kim Poffenroth, the province's chief electoral officer, said Elections New Brunswick usually holds province-wide municipal elections every four years in May, but since local governance reform, residents need to elect new councillors and mayors.
She said in some communities residents are electing entirely new councils,including mayors. In other places, new councillors are being added.
"It's important for voters to be aware of when the election date is — that the elections are coming up. But it's also equally important for all of the eligible voters, who are also eligible to be candidates, to know that these are coming up," Poffenroth told Information Morning Fredericton.
Elections New Brunswick staff are busy preparing electronic voter check-in equipment for election day on Nov. 28. (Lars Schwarz/CBC)
She said there's lots of work to do for Elections New Brunswick, not just to run the vote, but to help candidates know where to run and people know when and where to vote.
"We need people to get involved as candidate as well," she said. "When there's no actual choice on the ballot for individuals, you know, democracy suffers."
Poffenroth said candidates will need to get their paperwork in by 2 p.m. on Oct. 28, and all voters will find a yellow envelope from Elections New Brunswick in their mailboxes this week.
"These are really important positions because your local mayors and councillors, they make really important decisions about the kind of things that affect people's day-to-day lives things from," she said.
"Snowplowing, road clearing, police and fire, that all falls under the authority of your local government officials. And we need people that are passionate about their communities to get involved," she said.
This election will be a culmination of years of legislative change, including a bill passed in December that reduced 340 local government entities to fewer than 100.
Since the reform bill passed, the provincial and local governments went to work on revising boundaries, creating rural districts, picking new names and choosing governance structures for amalgamated communities.
The first phase is set to end on Jan. 1.
The next phase includes figuring out how the municipalities will work together and share resources, with policies cemented by 2027.
The reform led by the Progressive Conservatives under Premier Blaine Higgs was intended to address chronic local government problems that have built up for years, including the sharing and funding of local services and infrastructure, and the growth of urban sprawl just outside the taxation reach of cities, towns and villages.
With files from Information Morning
https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2021/12/kent-county-communities-ask-province-to.html
Disappointment and relief as N.B. tweaks some municipal boundaries
Communities that opposed amalgamation upset as requests for changes passed over
The province issued a list Tuesday afternoon with dozens of changes.
Many move portions or whole local service districts from one local entity to another, while other more substantive changes include the creation of a new community from multiple LSDs in Kings County, north of Sussex.
Several communities that had voiced opposition to forced amalgamations with neighbouring centres did not see their requests reflected in the adjustments.
"I was - and the council was - very much disappointed," Lac Baker Mayor Roseline Pelletier said in an interview.
Minto mayor Erica Barnett and Chipman mayor Keith West have said the merger of their two villages doesn't make sense. (CBC)
The community of 750 in the province's northwest will become part of Haut-Madawaska in January 2023. It had sought status quo to retain local control.
"We were confident that we proved with data that we were well off, we didn't need government money … we thought we had good arguments to make the government change its mind about amalgamating us with the other community."
There was also disappointment in Minto and Chipman, which opposed the province's plan to merge the central New Brunswick villages.
Mayor Erica Barnett in a letter to residents posted on Facebook said she had been excited about local governance reform when it was announced.
"I trusted the process, I believed that government would listen to local leaders and take the input we provided," Barnett wrote.
"Clearly that has not been the case. This has made council completely lose trust and faith in the process and in our government."
The province approved a request to merge the Village of Saint-Louis-de-Kent with the Town of Richibucto as well as several local service districts to form one new community. (Guy LeBlanc/Radio-Canada)
Meanwhile in Kent County, a proposal to merge communities the province initially planned to keep separate was approved.
The pitch called for merging the Town of Richibucto, Village of Saint-Louis-de-Kent, as well as the local service districts of Saint-Ignace, Aldouane, Saint-Charles and most of the LSD of Saint-Louis-de-Kent.
Saint-Louis-de-Kent Mayor Danielle Dugas welcomed the approval of the request.
"The old scenario was that we remained two small municipalities among all the rest of the large municipalities, so for us, it was just natural to ask to join together," Dugas told Radio-Canada. "We are nonetheless a community with common interests, people go to Richibucto, come to Saint-Louis, we share schools, sports and our infrastructure."
Sackville and Dorchester had opposed the forced amalgamation of the communities. Both wrote to Daniel Allain, minister of local governance reform, calling for more time and a reconsideration of the plan.
Sackville Mayor Shawn Mesheau said in an interview both communities still have many unanswered questions about how the merger will work. He said the town wasn't flatly opposed to expansion of its borders.
"The biggest concern was the feeling of being pushed into this, it being a forced amalgamation," Mesheau said.
In Lac Baker, the village is planning a community meeting Dec. 28 to hear from residents about what their next steps should be.
Mayor Roseline Pelletier doesn't want Lac Baker to be turned into an industrial village through its forced merger with Haut-Madawaska. (Bernard LeBel/Radio-Canada)
The mayor, Pelletier, said about 80 per cent of residents had already signed a petition opposing the amalgamation but that was seemingly ignored by the province.
The village falls below a viability threshold of 4,000 people and a $200 million tax base the government used for stand-alone municipalities.
But Pelletier said there are other small communities like Fredericton Junction and Tracy left alone, making her question whether it was a political decision.
"We don't understand the decision. We feel that we have exactly what we need here — a government that would make local decisions on local issues. I would like government to understand how important it is to have that."
Allain, in a news release about the changes the province accepted, said the government "made adjustments to some proposed restructuring plans if they are consistent with the guiding principles of the reform."
A bill to enact much of the province's sweeping local governance reform passed in the legislature last week and received royal assent. New community boundaries are expected to be in place by January 2023.
the baby boomer Generation. History will judge them as this is what happened here.
Sweeping municipal reform bill sails through, will become law Friday
Bill paves the way to reduce 340 local government entities to fewer than 100
The Progressive Conservative majority passed the reform package on third reading. Opposition parties didn't even demand a roll call vote to drag out the moment and force each MLA to record their vote individually.
A few members called out "no" votes but the process was perfunctory, given the bill's importance.
Passage of the legislation paves the way for the province to reduce 340 local government entities to just 78 municipalities and 12 rural districts.
It will also give new powers to regional service commissions to co-ordinate the delivery of programs between communities to avoid overlap and waste.
The reform is intended to address chronic local government problems that have built up for years, including the sharing and funding of local services and infrastructure, and the growth of urban sprawl just outside the taxation reach of cities, towns and villages.
The bill will become law Friday, when Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy grants royal assent to it and other pieces of legislation.
It gives the government a major policy win on an issue that three previous premiers have seen as too politically risky to tackle.
"A great majority of New Brunswickers are happy," Local Government Reform Minister Daniel Allain told reporters. "A great number of New Brunswickers have been advocating for change with municipal reform."
Daniel Allain, New Brunswick's minister of local governance reform, said there’s still a lot of work to do, including reaching decisions on alternate merger proposals from some communities. (CBC)
Still a lot of work to do, minister says
Allain said there's still a lot of work to do. He'll soon decide on alternate merger proposals from some communities.
But he said the small number of proposals, from about 10 out of 104 existing municipalities and around 20 out of 236 locate service districts, show that the reforms have been mostly accepted.
Opposition parties had demanded more time to debate the bill and a longer period for local communities to respond to the changes, but they didn't put up a major fight.
"We're not against the change, don't get me wrong," said Liberal Leader Roger Melanson. "But there are a lot of unknowns.
"What New Brunswickers want to know right now is not a matter of being for and against. It's getting more information to get a better understanding of what they really want to accomplish."
People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin said he wanted an extension of the deadline for municipalities to propose alternatives to what was laid out in Allain's Nov. 18 report.
Thursday was the deadline for submissions, and Allain is expected to finalize the makeup and boundaries of the 90 new local entities within days.
"I'm just hoping before then that the minister will reconsider and look at alternate options," said Austin, who said he wasn't completely opposed to the reforms either.
But Allain said that after months of meetings it was time to make decisions.
"We consulted all year. We have to move ahead."
Jean-Guy Finn, who delivered a detailed report on municipal reform in 2008, said Thursday that voluntary reform was never going to work. ((CBC))
Past governments avoided major changes
The last time a government looked at major reform was 2008, when retired civil servant Jean-Guy Finn delivered a detailed report to the Liberal government of premier Shawn Graham.
Graham promptly shelved the report.
His successors, Progressive Conservative David Alward and Liberal Brian Gallant, made some stabs at minor reforms but avoided major changes.
All of them adhered to the idea that any municipal mergers required approval of local residents in plebiscites, an obstacle the Higgs government is eliminating.
Finn said Thursday that voluntary reform was never going to work.
"That's been the difficulty in the last 12 years," he said. "Every time they tried to restructure, they tried to do it on a voluntary basis and it didn't work."
"For one reason or another, this government decided that they would proceed and lead the process."
Finn said he wasn't surprised that there was less controversy than expected.
"I was always under the impression that if the government of the day was to do the necessary explanation and articulation of what needed it to be done, it would be widely accepted, because the evidence and the data supporting this is so obvious."
Allain said that while Finn's report was shelved 13 years ago, it got municipalities and their associations talking about reform, paving the way for their support of his plan now.
Boundaries to be finalized by Jan. 1
The white paper released last month included a list of new municipal entities to be created by the mergers, based on a threshold that a community must have 4,000 people and a $200 million tax base to be considered viable.
He said he'll use that, and a municipality's dependence on unconditional grants from the province, to make decisions about the alternate proposals he's received.
"The white paper is not a bible, it's a road map," he said.
Allain said he looks favourably at discussions in Richibucto, Saint-Louis-de-Kent and nearby local service districts to go beyond his report and merge into a single entity rather than two.
He also said local service districts around Nackawic, Woodstock and Hartland are looking at joining those municipalities.
"It's spectacular to see what's happening," he said.
With boundaries finalized by Jan. 1, the next step will be starting the transition to the new entities.
Their names will be chosen by July 1 and the province will help them draft newly merged budgets by Sept. 30, which will be followed by elections in some entities in November.
"There's still a lot of work to do," Allain said.
Melanson said big questions remain to be resolved after 2022, including changes to the property tax system.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/local-governance-reform-mergers-sought-1.6287116
Kent County communities ask province to go further with local government mergers
Decision on request by Richibucto, Saint-Louis-de-Kent and nearby local service districts expected this week
"We want to go further in and make it work," Eric Tremblay, president of the Saint-Ignace local service district, said in an interview about a proposal submitted to the province.
The proposal calls for the merging of the Town of Richibucto, Village of Saint-Louis-de-Kent, as well as the local service districts of Saint-Ignace, Aldouane, Saint-Charles. It would also include most of the LSD of Saint-Louis-de-Kent.
Under the province's white paper outlining its local governance reform plans, the areas were going to be two separate communities anchored around the town and the village.
It's an example of tweaks to the province's sweeping overhaul sought ahead of the pending passage of legislation to implement those changes.
We know it's not sustainable to be everybody in their own little corner. If everybody can work together, it'll be a lot better than all working in little sections.- Danielle Dugas, mayor of Saint-Louis-de-Kent
Community leaders sent a letter to Minister Daniel Allain asking to be combined and are waiting for a formal decision that could come by the end of the week.
"I think we knew we kind of knew this was coming and we were getting ready for it," Danielle Dugas, mayor of Saint-Louis-de-Kent, said in an interview about community mergers.
"And we know it's not sustainable to be everybody in their own little corner. If everybody can work together, it'll be a lot better than all working in little sections."
Eric Tremblay, president of the Saint-Ignace local service district advisory committee, says they want to work together and have a seat at the table when decisions about local issues are being made. (Submitted/Eric Tremblay)
Tremblay said they want to have a seat at the table to make decisions rather than standing at the side and watching decisions be made for them. He said the region already works well together.
"Co-operation, it's embedded in our way of life here in Kent County," he said. "We are Francophone communities, Anglophone communities, Mi'kmaw communities, and we've been living together for well over 250 years, 300 years. It's not always rosy, we have our differences, but we're used to cooperating and helping each other."
The request offers a contrast to other parts of the province that are resistant to the changes the province has announced.
Some communities the province plans to amalgamate have spoken out against the plans, including Minto and Chipman, and Sackville about its merger with Dorchester. LSDs have voiced concerns about insufficient consultation held mainly through online meetings.
Tremblay said he can understand that some communities believe the changes don't meet their needs and may feel their voices weren't heard.
He said one community offers advantages in terms of planning community infrastructure, tourism promotion and business development and attraction.
He said they will need to be "vigilant" on the financing for new entities.
"I hope they will not repeat some errors that were done in the past where they amalgamated some communities without financing and new regulations, and financial tools to make it work," he said.
Dugas said with a larger tax base and population, the merged communities would hold more sway in dealing with the province.
As well, there are already community assets like a pool in her community, used mainly by people who live outside the village, but paid for by the village.
"This way, the whole region would pay, so it would be more equal for everybody," Dugas said.
Tremblay said there are other examples, like paying for arenas used regionally, that mean a merger makes sense.
Richibucto's mayor declined an interview before the province announces its decision on their proposal.
In an emailed statement attributed to the minister, the province said it is reviewing proposals and will announce decisions on those requests by the end of the week.
Daniel Allain, New Brunswick's minister of local governance reform, has indicated he's open to considering some tweaks to proposed municipal boundaries. (CBC)
Allain has said he's open to some tweaks based on feedback from communities.
A spokesperson for the department didn't answer a question about how many requests for changes have been received so far.
Legislation to implement aspects of the reform plan is expected to receive third and final reading this week before the legislature breaks for the holidays.
A timeline released by the province indicates new community boundaries would be in place by January 2023.
White Head Island might make sense to leave alone. They have their own fire department and are only connected by ferry. Miscou, on the other hand, was even part of a merger proposal with the various LSDs and villages of Lamèque Island a few years back yet it's somehow being left out of Lamèque's merger.
We the people.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/permanent-residents-municipal-vote-1.5973744
Immigrants urge N.B. to be leader and extend voting rights for municipal elections
A voice for people with permanent resident status could help them decide to stay, advocates say
Immigrants are asking New Brunswick to become the only province in Canada to give people who aren't citizens but have permanent resident status the right to vote in municipal elections.
The Lost Votes Campaign, a grassroots initiative of permanent residents, is gathering support from municipal governments to change the law that allows only Canadian citizens to vote municipally.
Asif Hasan, CEO of Simptek Technologies in Fredericton and a permanent resident from Bangladesh, is one of the organizers calling for the vote — something permanent residents had in New Brunswick until 1997.
"I'm one of the 29,500 permanent residents in New Brunswick and we are the lost votes — 29,500 lost votes," Hasan said.
Permanent residents in New Brunswick used to be able to vote in municipal elections. (Tina Lovgreen/CBC)
"There's a need for immigrants to have their representation because right now, our voice is muted."
Proponents say a bold decision to give permanent residents a voice could reap benefits for the province, with its aging population and shrinking workforce, and a rate of retaining immigrants of only 50 per cent after five years.
Voting rights could attract immigrants, or persuade them to stay, said Moncef Lakouas, president of the New Brunswick Multicultural Council.
"We have to come up with something that the big cities don't necessarily have," Lakouas said.
Liberals propose change
On Dec. 17, 2020, a bill to change the Municipal Elections Act to include permanent residents was introduced to the legislature by the Opposition Liberals.
"We wanted to force it through so Elections NB could get things going, to have things in place for permanent residents to vote this year," said Liberal MLA Keith Chiasson.
But there was no time to debate and vote on it before the legislature adjourned.
When the legislature resumes in May, Chiasson said, the Liberals will bring it forward for debate, and it's a priority for them.
Whether the provincial government will present its own bill or amend the existing one remains to be seen.
MLA Keith Chiasson says the Liberals plan to reintroduce a bill that would amend the Municipal Elections Act. (Radio-Canada)
Who can and can't vote
Permanent residents in Canada have to wait about three years to start their citizenship application. In total, the process takes at least four to five years.
To vote in federal, provincial or municipal elections in Canada, all provinces require residents to be Canadian citizens.
But before 1997, this wasn't the case. At least not in New Brunswick's municipal elections.
According to Paul Harpelle from Elections NB, the only requirement to vote in municipal elections in New Brunswick before 1997 was being 18 years of age or older.
Paul Harpelle at Elections NB says a few weeks would be enough time to include permanent residents in the election database. (CBC)
In 1996, the Election Branch of what was then the department of municipalities, culture and housing filed an electoral reform report recommending that municipal election requirements mirror those of the province, which required citizenship to vote.
"It could result in an elector being on one list and not on another because of the difference in citizenship requirements," said Harpelle.
They wanted to standardize the requirements of provincial and municipal elections.
The motion passed in 1997, and from that year forward, permanent residents were not allowed to vote municipally.
Changing the system 'not complicated'
Harpelle said if the policy changes to allow permanent residents to vote, Elections NB would need about "a few weeks or a couple of months" to implement the change in the database and train staff.
The Elections NB database is a list of all electors in the province. Separate cells would have to be created for permanent residents.
"Our database is also shared with Elections Canada," Harpelle said. "They would have to be able to extract any electors that are not Canadian citizens for federal elections."
The process is not complicated, said Harpelle, who described the testing of it as the most time-consuming.
How it started
The idea of allowing permanent residents to vote in New Brunswick was first proposed in 2012 by Lakouas, an organizer of the Lost Votes Campaign.
After two years of research, he travelled across the province, pitching the idea to city councils.
Starting in 2014, councils in Dieppe, Moncton, Edmundston and Campbellton all voted in favour of giving permanent residents the right to vote.
But municipalities fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, so the proposal to extend vote had to be introduced as a bill in the legislature.
The Lost Votes Campaign is holding panel discussions on permanent residents and their right to vote. (Submitted by Asif Hasan)
The idea was proposed to the Brian Gallant government, but it dropped down the list of priorities as a provincial election neared.
This year, the Lost Votes Campaign has reignited permanent resident's desire to vote and be heard.
An online petition in support of the campaign has been signed by 200 permanent residents of New Brunswick and been endorsed by Fredericton Mayor Mike O'Brien and other civic leaders, as well as the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce.
"The province has a stated desire to bring in 10,000 newcomers by 2027," O'Brien said. "If you're going to bring people in and make them feel part of the community, allowing them to vote municipally would be a big step."
Moncef Lakous, who is originally from Morocco, is now the New Brunswick Multicultural Council president and an organizer with the Lost Votes Campaign. (Vanessa Blanch/CBC)
Lakouas, who lives in Moncton, said the campaign is in constant talks with the province.
"We're hoping that Minister Allain will make this a priority as part of the provincial reform he's working on."
Minister of Local Government Daniel Allain wasn't available for an interview but sent an email statement to CBC News.
"Local governments across Canada have expressed an interest in extending permanent residents the right to vote," he wrote.
"Extending voting rights to permanent residents would be a fundamental change to New Brunswick's local government elections and a Canadian first. Extensive consultation would be required with the public and all affected stakeholders."
The arguments against it
One of the strongest arguments against allowing permanent residents the right to vote in municipal elections is it could discourage naturalization, where immigrants become citizens of a country.
According to Myer Siemiatycki, a politics professor at Ryerson University, there aren't many practical reasons or inducements to become a citizen in Canada, if you already are a permanent resident.
This is because there aren't a lot of differences in rights between being a Canadian permanent resident and a citizen.
Permanent residents cannot vote, get a passport, or certain jobs in the highest echelons of the federal and provincial public service.
That's about it, Siemiatycki said.
Myer Siemiatycki, a politics professor at Ryerson University, says voting rights in municipal elections could help newcomers form an attachment to the country. (Taras Karpiuk)
"And yet, I think what's impressive, and more people should be mindful of, is that Canada has the highest rate of immigrant naturalization of any country in the Western world," he said.
"Even though we don't give citizens necessarily a huge discrepancy or fringe benefits for becoming Canadians, they become citizens."
For all immigrants who have been in the country for three or more years, the rate of naturalization in Canada is 85 per cent.
The naturalization rate for U.S. immigrants is around 55 per cent.
Siemiatycki thinks Canadian immigrants develop an emotional attachment to the country, a sense of belonging and a "warm, fuzzy feeling" of acceptance from the government and this drives them to become citizens.
Something that would only grow if allowed to vote in municipal elections, proponents say.
The democratic process some immigrants take to heart
Espérance Balewula came to New Brunswick from South Africa through the Express Entry program in August 2018. She lives in the Greater Moncton area with her kids and her husband.
Balewula thinks allowing permanent residents to vote municipally will help its growth.
"I work, I pay taxes, and I contribute on a daily basis on the expansion of this province," she said.
"If our points are not counted on certain issues, how are we going to keep those permanent residents or immigrants in our community?"
New Brunswickers are going to the polls in May in the second election to be held in the province since the pandemic started. (Mike Heenan/CBC)
Voter turnout for municipal elections is quite low in most New Brunswick municipalities.
According to Elections NB, voter turnout in Fredericton was 36.8 per cent in 2016. For some communities, like Florenceville-Bristol, it was around 13 per cent.
Voting in municipal elections seems to be of no interest to many Canadians, so why the desire to vote among some immigrants?
Lakouas said the ethnocultural vote in Canada is quite high because it's a right many immigrants could not practise in their own countries.
"Some people, their leaders are chosen for them. To be granted that opportunity to vote, and be part of that democratic process, is something that immigrants do take deeply to heart."
What about the rest of Canada?
Before the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was adopted, Canadian citizens and citizens from Commonwealth countries could vote in Canadian elections.
But with the charter, this became untenable, said Siemiatycki, since it was clear then that in Canada "you were discriminating under the basis of nationality."
Since then, provinces have made changes to their electoral legislation at different times.
But according to Siemiatycki, giving people a chance to be part of, contribute to and have a voice in their community is the best way to promote citizenship.
"And that should be the starting point of building an attachment to this country."