The message from the 50 or so people gathered at the third edition of Saint John mayor Don Darling’s Budgets and Beers town hall series is clear: the time for municipal reform is now.
It was a common viewpoint around the room when discussing the so-called “new deal” report that sets out a three-part action plan to help fix the financial situation of the ailing city. Council has been divided on the report over the lack of short-term relief included in the plan, and ultimately voted to table the report for 30 days in July.
The province and the city have seemed to be far apart at times over how the city can bridge the $12 million structural deficit forecast for the next fiscal year, but progress appears to have been made.
Jeff Carr, minister of local government and environment, was in attendance Thursday night and pitched the idea of gathering council, local MLAs, and the premier along with city and provincial staff in a room to expedite the negotiation and see if there aren’t some tweaks that can be made to the report that would be acceptable to everyone.
“If we can get in the room and find a lot of those quick hits that don’t take a long legislative change process, that makes sense for both sides,” Carr told reporters after the meeting.
One of these possible tweaks that has already been discussed by premier Blaine Higgs and the chair of Saint John’s finance committee David Merrithew would be to ensure that property tax assessment values are correct.
Merrithew said during the meeting that the Irving rail car depot is assessed at a lower value than the Tim Hortons across the causeway, which drew laughs and sighs of disbelief from the crowd.
To this point, the city has continually suggested that the province roll out the initial phase of property tax reform for Saint John alone, estimating that the city could receive about $9 million from heavy industry.
But the province has been unwilling to budge, saying it wants to take the time to study tax reform before making changes that would affect the entire province.
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But when asked about using adjusted property tax assessments to address the budget shortfall, Darling said he could be on board.
“We’re very flexible as council on what the solutions are to bridge the gap — very flexible,” he said. “We proposed the first phase of tax reform. If the province of New Brunswick wants to propose another solution that helps us bridge that gap, absolutely, wide open to any of those ideas.”
Carr is scheduled to meet with Darling and Merrithew on Friday.