Posted Apr 19, 2008, 10:10 PM
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Join Date: Jun 2006
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Mayor race heats up
Candidates have side-by-side discussion about their plans for leading Moncton
By Brent Mazerolle
Times & Transcript Staff
Published Saturday April 19th, 2008
Appeared on page A1
Editor's note: The two men who want to be the next mayor of Moncton sat down together with the Times & Transcript's editorial board yesterday to show where they stand on the issues. A coin toss determined who answered the initial question first, and the candidates alternated after that.
Here's what they have to say about some of the things that matter to you:
Times & Transcript: What's the very first major item you will pursue as mayor?
Pierre Michaud: I would like to lead council into performing better. The first thing would be to sit down with council and look at what we need to function as a council. I think this is a very important election because right now there are at least four new seats. I don't think the training (of new councillors) in Fredericton is sufficient. As mayor, you are the leader of council. You have to establish the relationship and after that get down to work.
George LeBlanc: I agree getting council pulling together in the same direction, with city staff, on priorities is very important. One of the very first things I intend to do though is take a hard look at the tax rate in the city and how the city spends money. I intend to create a special committee which will review the way the city spends money and the level of taxation we have, and to have it report back to council within four months. It will advise and make recommendations on whether we can cut the level of taxes while still meeting the important goals we have set for the city.
T&T: What leadership will you bring to jump-starting downtown development?
LeBlanc: What I would like is to get council to make its priorities on what it would like to do with downtown development and look at how we might put together a proposal for a multi-use facility downtown -- it might include an arena, it might include convention facilities, it could also include entertainment and museum space -- but a multi-function facility that would really get downtown moving.
Having said that there would have to a realistic plan for financing it. It has to be economically feasible and we have to get a proper business plan. But that is one way we can really get things moving.
Michaud: Over the past few months I've been walking downtown and seeing restaurants and stores closing and second and third floors empty. That's a fact. We need to densify the downtown area and we need more people living in the downtown area. We need more businesses in the downtown area to create this downtown. As far as other things in the downtown, we'll have a justice building being built. The police station is one of the things that has to come up at some point and council will have to decide do we want to be in the business of owning this premises or should it be somebody else?
And of course, in order to densify the downtown area the most likely thing we could see is possibly the movement of the coliseum to downtown, but not the way it's set up now. It has to be multifunctional and has to answer the needs of people downtown. Most importantly it has to be something the population wants. We need a downtown, but how much money can we spend on it?
T&T: The amount of property tax collected by the City of Moncton has grown to $85 million in 2008 from $55 million, a jump of 55 per cent in a period where inflation climbed by less than 10 per cent. Will you work to lower the tax rate?
Michaud: I think what we have to do is be creative. We have to try to maintain the tax rate and at one point I think we will have to lower it because competition from neighbouring cities will force us. Being cost effective and how tax dollars are being spent, we will have to look at that. We also have to look at where in the budget have we seen major increases and can we control these expenses?
The minute you create an asset in this city, you have to maintain it and remember in the long run you will have to replace it. The Moncton Coliseum is a good example. The coliseum is costing the city a lot of money. Is it producing revenues? Yes. But is it cost effective? Should we be looking at a different kind of coliseum that is more cost effective? That's the way you'd be lowering expenses.
There are only a few ways to cut taxes. You have to cut services. If you cut services, the next council will have to decide how much of your money we want to spend on recreation, the fiscal on protection and so on. Some of these budgets are quite fixed, like the police contract.
The biggest challenge for the new council is the four main collective agreements with city employees will come to maturity. We need to start planning on that. The press in December (on senior management salaries) makes one thing sure, the unions are going to come out and ask why this has happened.
LeBlanc: Will I try to lower taxes? The short and simple answer is yes.
I have always been concerned about the levels of taxes we pay to all levels of government. I'm also very concerned that we have to spend our money carefully. As a taxpayer, I don't want to pay any more taxes than I have to. I fundamentally believe a fair and competitive tax rate is absolutely essential to this being a prosperous city. If taxes are too high then people and businesses are not going to want to come here. My pledge is that I will lead a council that is very careful in how it spends taxpayers' dollars and that we will find a fair and competitive tax rate.
The two fundamental pillars of my vision and action plan are that in everything we do we try to focus on and enhance the quality of life in the city, and secondly that we will aggressively seek opportunities for prosperity.
In the past four years the budget of the city has grown by $40 million. We have to recognize that has been in part because of the growth of the city. But we also have to realize every single dollar of those increases has been committed or spent. I think we have to do everything we can to keep that tax rate competitive and to try and reduce taxes, provided it doesn't impair our ability to meet those two pillars I have.
T&T: Policing costs have doubled in the 10 years since the RCMP has taken over policing our streets and the costs keep rising because of salaries imposed by Ottawa. Will you look at a return to a municipal police force? Is that an option?
LeBlanc: I come back to my fundamental about enhancing quality of life. Feeling safe and secure in this community is an absolutely essential part of that. That's one of the factors of building a community people want to live in and want to come to. The RCMP are doing a great job, working hard for the people of Moncton. Having said that, I think it's very, very important for the administration of the RCMP to understand that cost is a very significant issue for this community. Council has to take a very hard look at the cost and work with the RCMP to see how those costs can be reduced. As for returning to a municipal force, it seems to me that's an extremely significant decision that I would want input from the community on before making that decision. That's the kind of decision the community would want to be involved in.
Michaud: We will have to look at that before the contract matures in 2012. We will have to look at how we police. Can we afford RCMP when we have no control over that expense? Or can we find enough police officers to police this community with the types of crimes we have now? We have organized crime, prostitution, drugs and now we're starting to see commercial crimes. Can we handle all of that and do we have a facility in Atlantic Canada that can train these police officers for the size of the city we have and the growth we're experiencing?
T&T: There is at least a perception that City of Moncton staff have too much authority and council has too little. What are your thoughts on this?
Michaud: It's one of the 32 statements in my platform. My past performance in every business has been governance, has been looking at transparency. It's looking at what we give as a contract to our (city) manager and how often does he have to report back. I was amazed in December's budget process that it had been 19 years since the city manager has been in place and no one has questioned the salary increases nor the position increases over those years. It's not normal that you do that. You have an employee, but you still have to give an employee working orders and have them report back to you. If within these orders he cannot perform, he has to come back to council. Secret meetings. There's a need for secret meetings. Some things have to be secret. But there needs to be more transparency. The council needs to connect with citizens, and that's what I plan to do.
LeBlanc: I've been going door to door and talking to people in the community and I agree there is that perception among some people that perhaps council doesn't have enough control over things. I would say this first of all. It's pretty clear that the mayor and council have to assume a leadership position with respect to the priorities of the City of Moncton. It's also very clear the mayor and council are ultimately accountable to the people of the city. That's where it all has to start from. The strategic direction and energetic leadership has to be shown by the mayor firstly and secondly by council.
Having said all of that, I know we're blessed with a very professional and energetic staff at city hall. The challenge is to get everybody pulling in the same direction.
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