The City of Fredericton has some concerns about the voting system for the regional service commission and the work needed to make its new mandate happen.
In the municipal reforms, RSCs were granted more power. It would transition to handle regional economic development, tourism, community planning, and regional transportation.
It helps some of smaller municipalities and rural areas get more direct involvement in service delivery.
However, there is a lot of work to be done, according to deputy mayor Greg Ericson.
“It hasn’t been a road without it’s bumps,” he said. “We have a very basic procedural bylaw and governance framework and it really needs to evolve quickly.”
He said he does think the centralization of economic development and tourism makes sense, because many areas which are now incorporated weren’t mandated to provide those services.
Fredericton will provide RSC 11 with both, he said.
“Now as a region, we all have those mandates,” he said.
Each RSC can adopt its own set of unique procedural rules, but Ericson said the work has to start now to figure out how that works.
His larger concern, though, is the weighted voting, which is not based by per-capita.
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“There is a voting formula that essentially overweights other communities and underweights Fredericton as a community,” he said.
He said Fredericton could have 60 per cent of the population, but only get 30 per cent of the vote.
“So, we’re getting into taxation without representation space there and that needs to be remedied,” Ericson said.
Ericson said there was no discussion about the voting system with member municipalities and rural districts, but imposed by the minister.
He said the job with now be to fine-tune the rules to ensure transparency and accountability to taxpayers.
Political scientist and municipal reform researcher Zack Taylor said the reforms look similar to a model based in British Columbia, which is successful. He said it gives more authority to the local leaders, and ensures the buck stops at the their doorstep — distancing it from the provincial government.
“They are gaining new functions; they need to tap new expertise. Of course there is going to be a learning curve,” he said.
Taylor said the good thing about this fresh start is RSCs can make changes how they see fit, and tailor solutions that are driven at a local level. As for the weighted voting, Taylor said the formula is that large populated municipalities don’t steamroll small ones or rural areas in decision-making.
“So, it’s a give and take and trust has to be built for these institutions to work,” he said.
The Minister of Local Government and Local Governance Reform was unavailable for an interview Wednesday.
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