Municipalities React To Election Results

An association representing municipalities throughout New Brunswick says this week’s election results mean a bit of certainty for them.

Margot Cragg, executive director of the Union of the Municipalities of New Brunswick, said a Tory majority ensures work this government has been doing will continue.

“There are some very important conversations that need to be had about municipal reform, fixing the property tax system, as well as ways to ensure municipalities can help New Brunswick recover from COVID and build the economy that we want afterwards,” said Cragg.

Some of those conversations have already been happening in recent months, said Cragg, particularly in the area of municipal reform and property tax reform.

“Things like reviewing property taxes, removing some of the barriers to regional collaboration and community restructuring, talking about regional service commissions and how to make sure that they work a little better,” she said.

Cragg said she is encouraged by comments made election night by premier-elect Blaine Higgs, who said the government needs to help all regions succeed.

She said it is important that all of the parties represented in the legislature are included in that conversation.

Several current and former municipal politicians will be joining the legislature after this latest provincial election.

They include Progressive Conservative candidates Bill Hogan in Carleton and Greg Turner in Moncton South.

Cragg said it is important to have people with municipal experience at the provincial table in Fredericton.

“They municipally-elected folks bring the perspective and the experience of having actually been there in the trenches at the municipal-elected level,” she said.

With provincial elections out of the way, the UMNB hopes we can now talk about a future date for municipal elections.

Those elections were supposed to happen in May but were postponed by up to a year due to the pandemic.

Cragg said the unexpected postponement has left some municipalities in very precarious situations.

“You’ve got folks who have for a variety of reasons, whether it be work or life, have had to step down, and so you’ve got some councils that are running on a really short bench,” she said, adding some are teetering on the edge of quorum.

“I know that everybody might be a little electioned out, but the municipal-elected folks are right now serving their fifth year of a four-year term.”

With lessons learned about voting during a pandemic, Cragg said they are eager to learn what this will mean for municipal elections.

Congratulations to Team @BlaineHiggs2020 and all members of the new Legislative Assembly. Municipalities are ready to get to work. 🤝

Félicitations à l'équipe PC et à tous les membres de la nouvelle assemblée législative. Les municipalités sont prêtes à se mettre au travail. 🤝

— Union of Municipalities NB/Union des municipalités (@MunicipalNB) September 15, 2020