Pollett, the chief executive officer of Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador, said Saturday at the Deer Lake Motel in Deer Lake that something is regional government.
Pollett was in town to speak at a special meeting of the Great Humber Joint Council on regionalization of services. But MNL’s idea of regionalizing services goes much deeper than agreements here and there, it involves a model for regional government which Pollett outlined for the 26 people in attendance.
After the presentation, he said the issue is an important one for MNL because it is seeing some disturbing trends in demographics in the province. Fewer people are coming forward to serve on municipal councils and the ones that are left there are getting up in age.
During the last provincial election, he said, only 45 per cent of communities in the province needed to hold votes. Either they had enough returning members or couldn’t get enough people to run to fill the available spots.
On top of that is the issue of money.
“Most smaller municipalities don’t have the financial resources to do a lot of the stuff that residents want them to do,” he said. “Indeed, they don’t have the resources to do a lot of the things they’re being told they have to do.”
Things like the federal waste water requirements.
There’s also the fact that a lot of services — land use planning and engineering — are really regional in nature, but Pollett said there is no good mechanism to deal with them.
So MNL’s proposal to the province involves setting up a regional government system, similar to county governments in Quebec and British Columbia.
The idea is not about amalgamation but of forming regional governments, and municipalities maintaining their own councils would be an important part of the process.
They would look after the things specific to their community and be a part of a bigger entity that would look after common things — waste water treatment, drinking water and waste management.
Set up the right way, Pollett said, regional government will take a lot of the heavy burden off the smaller municipalities.
“We think a regional government could do those things better.”
Pollett said it’s possible small councils may decide being strictly part of a regional government is the best option for them and they could dissolve as a municipality. It’s also possible that bigger centres, like Corner Brook and Deer Lake, could opt to remain outside the regional government, continue on their own, but still work with a regional government.
Pollett said the focus is on building capacity where capacity doesn’t exist. Under its proposed model everyone would pay, including local service districts and unincorporated areas, and would have a vote at the table.
MNL is planning to do a pilot of the proposal by bringing together a number of communities in a sort of a virtual regional government.
But in the long-run Pollett said it is something the province will have to address and he’s hopeful there is a willingness to do so.
“They are not blind to the issues we’re seeing. They know the demographics are challenging, they know the finances are challenging and they know that a lot of municipalities don’t have the services they should.”
