Saint John’s mayor says 2019 will be a “stay the course” year as council focuses on implementing existing plans, such as their growth roadmap and population growth strategy.
In a year-end interview, Don Darling said they will continue to focus on three main areas — people, jobs, and growing the tax base.
“I think you can expect to see focus and … trying to get better at delivering results in each of those categories,” he said, noting the city released a growth targets dashboard in 2018 to help measure their progress.
Darling said they want to attract the “right types of projects” to spur others and better communicate with the public about the importance and benefit of each project.
Two of the focuses for 2019 are a revamped City Hall and an overhauled city website, which Darling said will deliver better service to residents.
Darling said he also hopes they can better sell the value and benefits of living in Saint John as talent recruitment becomes one of the top issues they are facing.
“We know that we need to attract, as a province, well over 100,000 people over the next 15 or so years,” he said.
“Saint John needs to play a key part in that.”
Story by Brad Perry
Twitter: @BradMPerry
Email: perry.brad@radioabl.ca
(Photo: Brad Perry/Acadia News)
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