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JOHN MAZEROLLE
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
Published Saturday March 29th, 2008
Appeared on page B1
SAINT JOHN - If you're a city taxpayer, you're spending a lot during this economic boom, whether you know it or not.

The Port City's bid to become a so-called 'energy hub' has had nuclear plants, natural gas, and oil refineries at the centre of it all. But look around the hub and one realizes it's also an incredibly busy time for public projects in the city - so much so that political scientist Geoff Martin of Mount Allison University chuckled in amusement when the government spending was laid out for him.

Eighty-eight million dollars for harbour cleanup. More than $100 million for clean drinking water. Almost $100 million on the police-justice complex. New homes for Saint John Transit ($22 million) and Saint John Energy ($10 million). The One Mile interchange ($43.5 million). Add to that the Saint John Regional Hospital expansion ($30 million or more), the Cruise Ship Welcome Centre ($8.7 million), or even small potatoes like the Canada Games Stadium refurbishment ($3.5 million).

Total price tag: At least $400 million. And that doesn't include day-to-day concerns like roads and highways, or needs that have yet to come before council, such as a competitive and refurbished Trade and Convention Centre.

"This is a discussion that the whole community has to get involved in," Martin said, noting that the large number of municipal files in the list and their possible effect on the tax rate could easily become a municipal election issue this May. In fact, a few incumbent candidates, such as Coun. Stephen Chase and Deputy Mayor Michelle Hooton, have made noises about changing the way the city does business.

"Maybe there's a few items that can wait just a few years," Martin said.

City manager Terry Totten doesn't know if this is the busiest time in the city's history, but he's sure it's the busiest time since the boom in the mid-1980s spurred on by a strong economy and the recreation facilities needed for the 1985 Canada Games. "Circumstances are such that everything is coming together at the same time," he said recently in an interview.

The city and its water utility have a large number of projects on the go at once - three separate north of Union components (police, parking, public space), huge water and wastewater improvements, the transit headquarters, and the Canada Games refurbishment, plus other, smaller-ticket items. The city's long-term projections has it borrowing as much as $221 million from the beginning of this year to the end of 2012.

Totten rejects any notion that the glut of files is the result of poor planning: He stresses the necessity of the projects, the economic spin-offs the city hopes to gain from them, and the lack of funds available through most of the 1990s and the first part of this decade. "We just do not have a choice," he said, referring specifically to water spending. "We are long overdue."

Many of the projects, municipal or otherwise, are considered long overdue: Removing the raw sewage from the harbour was the number one priority of both the public and the current council; each of the new buildings is replacing an old building or buildings that officials consider woefully inadequate; and the Canada Games Stadium refurbishment is meant to save the city from constructing a new facility that would cost $15 million or more.

Yet concerns remain.

Totten says there's always a risk that with so many projects on the go that a legal document or transaction could be done improperly in haste, and city treasurer Greg Yeomans warns council about worst-case scenarios concerning the tax rate - a possible three cents for the police-justice complex alone, which could cost individual homeowners in the range of $25 to $60 or more a year, depending on the value of their property.

Said Totten: "Significant public investment is ultimately paid by taxpayers, whether by tax rate or (increases) in assessments," he said.

The next council may have more on the go than the councils that dealt with tough times, but their decisions about spending, the tax rate, and where to cut will not be any easier.

"I don't think it's easy one way or the other," Yeomans said.