A plan for local governance-Coming soon to a community near you

Bruce Fitch

New Brunswick's Minister of Local Government, Bruce Fitch, recently announced that the provincial government will be sharing their plans for local governance in the coming months. Little action has taken place since the Department of Local Government carried out a public consultation tour in the spring. Twenty different consultation meetings were held province-wide, and a total of over 1,600 people came out and took part in the process. Four different surveys were available on the department's website, and the amount of completed surveys exceeded 600. Ten consultation sessions took place.

An article on CJ 104 radio's news updates stated that Minister Fitch "believes communities are waiting for the government to set out a direction [,] and interest will grow once they decide how to tackle the issue." Seventeen local service districts are planning to amalgamate with the town of Tracadie-Sheila. The Parish of Grimmer and the village of Kedgwick have planned to create a rural community, and have voted in favour of it. The village of Millville is beginning to explore amalgamation, while nothing is in the works at present time for Woodstock, Hartland and Florenceville-Bristol.