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Old Posted Dec 6, 2014, 6:32 PM
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JHikka JHikka is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Toronto
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad View Post
The solution to me would be not to throw more provincial money at Saint John (unfair to all those people who live more than an hour from the city). The solution instead would be to force civic amalgamation of Rothesay, Quispamsis, Grand Bay, Westfield and perhaps even Hampton into a larger regional municipality so that every resident of the greater Saint John area contributes equally to the regional tax burden.
Any provincial politician willing to do this would have to do this in full knowledge that they would lose the ridings of Rothesay, Quispamsis, and Kings Centre for as long as they ran. People live outside of Saint John because they want nothing to do with the City and it's politics. Does it suck for the people who live in the City? Absolutely. Is suburban sprawl part of the reason why Saint John is so poorly financed and run? Absolutely. Do I think Greater Saint John should be amalgamated? Absolutely. Any politician doing it has to understand that they would face tremendous pressure from the 'burbs to prevent this from happening.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad View Post
I imagine a well funded police force and well equipped fire department for Saint John would be more meaningful for a resident of Rothesay than it would be for somebody from Moncton or Fredericton.......
Given how well funded the police and fires forces are in Saint John, Valley residents may not want anything to do with them (hint: they're heavily financed and still run a deficit each year). KV has its own Fire and Police services as is.

Honestly nothing gets my blood boiling more than suburban sprawl in SJ.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Monctoncore View Post
the most questionable is.....

Saint John: $20.9 million

I assume there must be a reason for this, I just wonder why it is so much, without any explanation as to why the closest to them is 5.6 million?
This is mostly due to slow growth and a lack of revenue thereof. All of the other cities in the province are growing at higher than a 1% rate except for Saint John. It's suburbs are doing fine, of course, but the City is crippled. IIRC, part of the $20M comes from Saint John reorganizing its public pension plans, but that may just be my shoddy memory. I'm sure one of the perpetually negative reporters in NB will, at some point, cover Saint John's financial woes in the near future, and why it receives such a large sum of money compared to the others.
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