News Release

FREDERICTON (GNB) – Amendments to the Greater Saint John Regional Facilities Commission Act were introduced today in the legislative assembly.

“These are regional facilities and they require regional support to ensure their sustainability in the long-term,” said Environment and Local Government Minister Jeff Carr. “As we committed to in Sustaining Saint John – A Three Part Plan, all communities in Greater Saint John will be contributing to the operating and capital costs for these facilities. These types of regional facilities are important to a vibrant region.”

For more than 20 years, the Greater Saint John Regional Facilities Commission Act has required the local governments of Saint John, Grand Bay-Westfield, Quispamsis, and Rothesay to share the net operating costs of Harbour Station, the Saint John Trade and Convention Centre, the Canada Games Aquatic Centre; the Saint John Arts Centre Inc., and Imperial Theatre.

However, only the City of Saint John has been responsible for the capital costs associated with these five facilities.

The provincial government announced the expansion of the act to share capital costs with more local governments and to share capital and operating costs with local service districts (LSDs) as part of its Sustaining Saint John, Three-Part Action Plan.

The following local service districts and local governments will become financial contributors to the five facilities: Town of Hampton, Village of St. Martins, and the Local Service Districts of Fairfield, the parish of Greenwich, the parish of Kingston, the parish of Musquash, the parish of Rothesay, the parish of Simonds, the parish of Westfield, the parish of Saint Martins, the parish of Petersville and the parish of Hampton.

The new cost-sharing model will take effect for 2020.

Having vibrant and sustainable communities is one of the government’s key priorities. More information about the government’s priorities and measurements is available online.