The People’s Alliance election 2018 platform includes promises that would affect municipalities, including tax reform and reviewing “equal opportunity” payments to municipalities to ensure they are fair and efficient.

PANB has said “assessments would fall to each municipality.” Currently, property assessments are done by Service NB. Responsibilities should not be downloaded without resources to pay for them.

“Equal Opportunity” payments may refer to community funding and equalization grants, which provide funding to ensure all citizens can offer comparable level of services. This funding provides a diminishing percentage of municipal revenues, and the provincial-municipal fiscal arrangement should be reviewed to ensure all municipalities have the resources to meet today’s challenges. However, UMNB supports Equal Opportunity and does not support any reductions that would disadvantage some communities.

UMNB is tracking campaign promises on municipal issues from all NB political parties and will examine their platforms through the municipal lens. Follow our Facebook page for news and updates: www.facebook.com/MunicipalNB


Municipal issues in the PANB platform:

Tax reform:

  • Returning power of assessment to municipalities using standard models from other jurisdictions (with support from Regional Service Commissions)
  • Reviewing “equal opportunity” payments to municipalities to ensure they are fair and efficient
  • Including machinery and equipment in assessments to large industry
  • Eliminating the double tax system

Full PANB platform: https://www.peoplesalliance.ca/platform