Risk & Business Magazine Cal LeGrow Fall 2016 | Page 30

REGIONAL HIGH ROAD

Taking The Regional High Road
The Potential Of Our Regional Government

I

started this job fifteen years ago.
Almost sixteen. I came to it like
a zealot, believing the future was
stronger, more autonomous local
government. That the more we
devolved authority and tools to the first
order of government, the better off we
would all be. It was obvious. Who else
is better positioned to make important
decisions about people’s lives and about the
communities where they live than local
politicians?

I still believe that, but the way we need
to get there is changing. Regional
government, ironically, is the way we will
strengthen local democracy. It took me
almost a decade to come to this realization.
Not because I didn’t like the idea of
regional government – I did – but because
I thought we needed to strengthen the
local system first. And ideally, that’s exactly
what we would do. Unfortunately, time
isn’t on our side anymore.

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FALL 2016

The demographics of our councils are
startling. Fewer and fewer people are
running for municipal office. In 2013, only
45 percent of councils required an election.
The remaining 55 percent settled for either
all seats being acclaimed or not enough
candidates coming forward. The financial
capacity to do the work that needs to be
done simply isn’t there for most smaller
towns. The vast majority of municipalities
don’t have the human resources or
technical wherewithal to do the things
they know their residents want.
Let me give you an example. A council
delegation from a small community came
to the Municipalities Newfoundland and
Labrador (MNL) office one day to discuss
some infrastructure projects it was hoping
to get started. The discussion was moving
along nicely when one council member
suddenly noticed the time and said, “We’ve
got to go b’ys, I’m on-call tonight.”
I asked what his job was that would have

him on-call overnight. “It’s not my job,”
he said. “Everyone on council takes turns
being on-call to operate the backhoe in
case we have a sewer line break overnight.”
I’ve heard stories like this before.
Municipal councillors care very deeply
about their communities. Most do
this work for very little or no pay at all.
No one gets rich by getting elected to
municipal government in Newfoundland
and Labrador. They do it because they
care, but they are struggling to keep
their communities afloat in the face
of increasingly complex regulations,
increasingly expensive infrastructure,
and increasingly challenging economic
circumstances. The system they work in
cannot hold for much longer. Right now,
we estimate that the collective investment
needed for replacing aging drinking water
infrastructure is almost $500 million;
to implement new federal wastewater
treatment regulations, over $400 million.