The Cities of New Brunswick Association is still reeling from the provincial capital budget which cancelled $265 million worth of funding for a lot of major projects.
Miramichi Mayor Adam Lordon is the Chair of the Association and says these funding decisions have a ripple effect.
“There is more impact than simply the provincial government, there are local impacts to the economies of our cities and long term planning of municipalities,” stated Lordon.
Lordon says “we just want to be consulted and that is consistent with what we have been saying for sometime is for municipalities to have a seat at the table of some of these large scale decisions that will impact things on the ground in our cities.”
He says when it comes to planning, “we want to make sure that our perspectives and viewpoints are being considered, so that spending reductions, or when projects are cancelled, those are made in a strategic way.”
That method would be preferable to what happened this time which was “a unilateral, no new funding […] sort of way of operating.”
Among the major projects shelved during the budget are hospital upgrades, more twinning of Highway 11, and the cancellation of $50 million earmarked for a renovation and upgrade of the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, as well as the refurbishment of the Centennial Building and a new Fredericton Courthouse.