New Brunswick reforms merge dozens of local governments and rural areas

New Brunswick is slashing the number of local government entities by forcing mergers of dozens of municipalities and neighbouring rural areas, and combining remaining rural areas into new, larger districts with elected advisory boards and taxation powers.

Around 161,000 people, or 22 per cent of the provincial population, who now live in unincorporated local service districts will find themselves residents of enlarged municipalities when the transition is complete.

The remaining local service districts will be combined into 12 rural districts with elected advisory boards that will advise the province on local tax rates.

The Higgs government is describing it as a way to give those residents power over local issues.

"Your voice will be heard. The democratic deficit currently affecting 30 per cent of the province's population will be rectified," Local Government Reform Minister Daniel Allain says in a white paper released Thursday.

All told, the number of local entities will be cut from 340 to 90. There will be 78 municipalities and 12 rural districts.

The reform is intended to deal with a range of chronic local government problems that have been building up for years, including the sharing and funding of local services and infrastructure, and the growth of urban sprawl just outside the taxation reach of cities, towns and villages.

Regional service commissions created a decade ago to co-ordinate some of those issues will be beefed up, with new mandates and voting rules to reduce the procedural gridlock on some votes and put limits on opting out.

The commissions, which include all municipalities and rural LSDs in their areas, will now have a role in economic development, tourism promotion, regional transportation and the cost-sharing of recreational infrastructure such as arenas.

They'll also have public safety committees to oversee policing and fire services. And the three largest commissions, anchored by Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton, will get a role in paying for homelessness, mental health and poverty reduction services.

There are no major amalgamations involving the province's three largest cities. Saint John's boundaries remain unchanged and Moncton gains a small part of one local service district but not Dieppe or Riverview.

Fredericton will absorb several outlying adjacent areas but no nearby municipalities.

But a number of smaller municipalities will be fused together, along with some neighbouring local service districts, into larger entities. They include:

All the new entities will be in place in January 2023.