The exterior of Saint John City Hall is pictured in this file photo. (Staff photo)
The city has formally endorsed the province’s green paper on municipal reform, calling for comprehensive tax reform by 2022.
The provincial report was released back in April, after years of requests from municipalities to fix taxation rates and regionalization.
Saint John’s council has identified municipal reform as a key issue to help the city’s growth agenda, and city staff drafted a letter to be sent to the provincial government.
The letter calls for reforms to be put in place by the end of next year, and specifies four issues crucial to the city.
The first two issues cited by the city involve taxation, including a request that those who use services pay for the service and associated infrastructure, a nod to regionalized cost-sharing for nearby municipalities.
Second, the city is looking for a better share of tax revenue generated by businesses in Saint John. Many calls for municipal reform centre around the belief that the province takes an inequitable portion of industry-generated tax revenue.
The final two items mentioned as foundational issues by city staff are increased regional collaboration and de-incentivizing sprawl due to low tax rates outside of the province’s major cities.
“Our current governance and taxation structures encourage sprawl outside of cities since it is simply less expensive to live there due to reduced taxes,” the letter reads.
“It should instead, encourage people to live in a way that reduces cost of providing services through densification and reduces environmental harm.”
