We need unity and partnership with all levels of government.
That powerful message coming from a meeting with local MP Karen Ludwig, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Marco Mendicino, and all fourteen mayors of South-west New Brunswick.
MP Ludwig says the round-table discussion, which took place at Fundy High School in St. George on Monday, January 16th, definitely showed unity and common challenges between the municipalities.
“When the Parliamentary Secretary asked one of the mayors “What is your priority? He said, ‘We have come so far in the last three years, my priority is just to move forward, if we don’t get some of these projects, and we don’t continue on with them, we’re going to be set back for years.”
Ludwig says one of the big challenges facing the mayors was finding a partnership between all three levels of government for infrastructure investments.
“The municipality, the province, and the feds. And we need to be able to push one of our partners, the provincial government, to continue on investing in these really vital and priority projects that we didn’t set as a federal government, the municipalities are setting them.”
She said it was a powerful message for the Parliamentary Secretary to hear, “As a group of mayors, they have their priorities, they’ve set them. And if anyone thinks that they’re frivolous, they’re not.”
Ludwig says another challenge brought forward by the mayors was the process of applying to get funding for infrastructure.
“The greatest challenge that I heard from our coastal and rural mayors, is the amount of work it takes, and the expertise it takes, and the time, but also the money, to prepare an application for infrastructure.”
Ludwig says, while representing all fourteen municipalities, hearing all the voices during the meeting it sent a message that was loud and clear.
She says with everything that is required to apply for infrastructure investments, some municipalities have not been applying.
Over the course of the visit from the Parliamentary Secretary, Ludwig also brought him to Saint Andrews to tour the NBCC Trades’ class, the W.C. O’Neill Arena, and Minister’s Island.