Opinions on regionalization a mixed bag for N.L. local service districts
CBC
A report from the provincial government bringing recommendations of regionalization is sending mixed emotions to those living in local service districts across Newfoundland and Labrador.
The report, released by a provincial joint working group Wednesday, recommends a regional approach to the delivery of community services in local service districts. There are 172 local service districts in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to the department of Municipal and Provincial Affairs.
Minister Krista Lynn Howell told CBC News Wednesday the plan won't be a one-size fits all approach, and that the plan will be reviewed by the provincial government "as soon as possible."
"Government recognizes that we're in a place now where we have to make some of these decisions and we have to move forward," Howell said.
The report recommends a plan to roll out in three stages, the last of which would be completed in late 2024.
Under the new model, some residents of local service districts will have to pay property taxes, or may pay for new services. Residents of municipalities will only pay taxes to their municipal council.
Andrew Pretty of Dildo, a local service district on the northeast Avalon with a population of about 1,200, hopes the changes will make sense for residents from a fiscal standpoint.
"We don't want to pay for services we're not receiving, and I think we should receive the services that we deserve," Pretty said Wednesday.
"We share our fire department with five other LSDs, we share our garbage under Eastern Waste Management, which is a regional board. We share our water services with another community. So most of our services are regionalized, we're just not under a municipal structure."
Pretty said the local service district committee in Dildo is extremely active, and that the area is seeing population growth in recent years. He hopes changes and regionalization won't impact that momentum or the town's identity.
Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador President Amy Coady told CBC News she believes regionalization will only strengthen individual community identity. According to the report recommendations, individual communities will retain their names.
Additionally, Pretty believes the idea that local service districts may not be paying their share is unfair, and hopes the mentality will change in the future.
"Municipalities, you receive municipal operating grants and you receive gas tax both federally and provincially that local service districts can't avail of. Yet we still pay in," he said.
"So I don't see how it's fair to say the local service districts aren't paying their way, because we pay into the pools of money that municipalities avail of that we can't avail of ourselves."
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