Municipal leaders from the Saint John region have come together for their first State of the Region event.
More than 200 business leaders attended Wednesday’s event, hosted by the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce.
It was a chance for the region’s six mayors and one rural district chair to discuss recent successes and ongoing challenges.
A topic that was brought up frequently during the hour-long event was regional cooperation.
Libby O’Hara, the mayor of Quispamsis, said she believes the recent local governance reform has helped the conversation evolve.
“We want to move forward. We want to do everything that we can to improve and to make our communities better and stronger, and this is what we’re doing,” said O’Hara.
“The idea that we want to live in silos or work in silos, that is gone, because we have made a laser-focused commitment to making sure that we are going to work together to make our region as strong as we possibly can.”
David Hickey, a councillor in Saint John, said Wednesday’s event recognizes that there is greater strength in operating as a region rather than individual municipalities.
Hickey said there are some really big issues that need to be tackled, with local reform being front and centre.
“I think what a lot of folks have realized, certainly for me, is that we’re not going to get there unless we’re all speaking the same language unless we’re all advocating for the same things and that means working together as a region,” he said.
“There’s no question there’s still differences and there’s still conversations that need to be had but I think there is an understanding that we all need to be grabbing an oar and moving the region forward together instead of in silos.”
Ray Riddell is the chair of the Fundy Rural District, which represents all of the smaller communities throughout the Saint John region.
Riddell said the provincial government should be funnelling more money back to municipalities that have been dealing with more responsibilities as a result of municipal reform.
“It’s very difficult because with the mandates downloaded, the funding did not come,” he said. “So hopefully the funding will come so that we don’t have to keep raising the taxes.”
