New local governments meet for first time in New Brunswick

New local governments meet in Fredericton Hundreds of local government leaders came together in Fredericton this weekend for the 2023 Union of the Municipalities orientation session.

The mayor of Arcadia, N.B., is representing his new community for the first time

"I was the mayor of Gagetown previously to this, and now, the result of local reform, we now have a much larger glorious community,” said Derek Pleadwell, mayor of the municipality of Arcadia.

The province's municipal reform plan, which was set in motion in the fall of 2021, had the province go from 340 local governments and districts to 89.

This weekend was a kind of “Municipality 101” lesson for those new and returning local governments.

"We wanted to supplement that learning for them so that they would be better equipped to do their job in their communities and face the new challenges that are coming their way,” said Dan Murphy, executive director of the Union of Municipalities of N.B.

Some of those municipalities are working with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

"We've hit the ground running,” Pleadwell said. “I'd say that's extremely necessary given what's been chewed off with reform -- we've got a team that's working together,” he said.

While others are not only brand new to politics, but to their community's existence.

"I did not have any council experience. This is my first foray into municipal politics,” said Erica Warren, mayor of Maple Hills. “It is very exciting. It's a brand new rural community, there's opportunity for us to jump in and start right at the beginning. We're starting with procedural bylaws -- we're starting right from scratch.”

With the new councils having come into effect in January, they're just getting to some of the challenges of their new municipalities.

"Our council's getting used to the size of the area we're in,” Pleadwell said. “We have a region pretty much the size of Mississauga but we do not have the 880,000 people that Mississauga has, we have just north of 3,500 people.”

The UNMB orientation session had 205 participants gathered in Fredericton, and about 60 per cent of those are brand new to municipal politics.

"One thing any new municipality has to go through, they've got to consolidate bylaws, they need to update municipal plans,” Murphy said. “There's a whole lot of zoning work that needs to be done, rebranding even the brand for the municipality,” he said.

Municipalities are now waiting to hear what their funding will look like when the provincial budget is delivered in March.