Nathalie Sturgeon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Saint Croix Courier

This is the first article in a two-part series that examines the province of New Brunswick’s decision not to make training mandatory for municipal officials, instead providing a voluntary option. 

A recommendation by the Local Governance Commission (LGC) to make training mandatory for municipal leaders and staff will not be implemented by the Department of Local Government (ELG).

In September, the LGC said mandatory training would address the ongoing challenges many local governments have faced since municipal reform in 2023. 

Commission Chair Gisele Goguen said in a release at the time that failure to complete the training should result in appropriate sanctions. 

Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy told Goguen in a letter that the department will work with the municipal associations to provide a “comprehensive orientation program” for elected officials and administrative staff following the May election. 

However, the department rejected making it mandatory.

“The department has decided to focus [its] efforts in the coming months to address the barriers which may have prevented elected officials from engaging with the training offered in partnership with the municipal associations,” the letter reads. 

In the months following the recommendation, the commission also released an advisory warning that code of conduct and conflict of interest meetings could not be held in closed session, and were wrongly being dealt with under Section 68(1)(j) of the Local Governance Act (LGA) as “labour and employment matters.” 

The LGC cited two decisions that demonstrated elected municipal leaders could not be considered employees of the local government. 

Several exemptions listed under Section 68(1) of the LGA in which council may enter closed session during a council meeting include legal advice and personal information as defined in the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.  

An investigation by The Courier showed that some municipalities in Charlotte County were holding those discussions in closed session. 

Both Eastern Charlotte and Saint Andrews raised concerns about the advisory, saying the complaint process could be used inappropriately. The council in Saint Andrews asked ELG to create a standardized process for councils in New Brunswick to follow, but the department said it would be up to each municipality to consult legal counsel on legislative interpretation. 

In St. Stephen, the council removed all references to closed sessions in accordance with the advisory, apart from the exemptions under Section 68(1), particularly for legal advice. 

“It’s only been three years — three years and a bit — since we started these communities. It takes time and it takes effort to build community, and training is a fundamental block of that. We need to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need, and the support, and the resources.” – Dan Murphy, Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick

Goguen said in a statement to The Courier that it was disappointed the department decided not to move forward with mandatory training. 

“The commission continues to maintain that mandatory training in the key areas we have identified would be the best and most efficient way for the department to ensure that local government leaders have consistent access to the tools, information and foundational knowledge necessary to help them serve their communities,” she said. 

Goguen said the commission will continue to advocate for mandatory training, calling it a “critical component of strengthening local governance across our province.”

Meanwhile, the executive director of the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) said he was surprised by the department’s decision.

“Our association, the other municipal associations [and] our members came through loud and clear that they thought this was important. So it was surprising for us at the end of the day,” Dan Murphy said. 

He said there is room for standardized training through the department. 

“Having some type of requirement and creating [a] culture around ongoing training is important, and I think the department understands that. It’s something that we’re working on in collaboration with them, but I think the decision not to move forward with the mandatory training part means that there’s going to be a patchwork element to it, and so we need to figure out how to address that,” he said. 

Murphy said he hopes that patchwork doesn’t put municipalities in the same situation they faced with code of conduct and conflict of interest. 

“I think we were all working hard so that that doesn’t happen, but local governance reform is ongoing,” he said. “It’s only been three years — three years and a bit — since we started these communities. It takes time and it takes effort to build community, and training is a fundamental block of that. We need to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need, and the support, and the resources.” 

Murphy said work with the department is ongoing, including some of the pre-election work mentioned by Kennedy and voluntary training offered through the two associations. 

Jurisdictional scan, decision

The department did a jurisdictional scan, which identified six of nine provinces as requiring mandatory training for elected officials. 

On Nov. 3, documents show the research identified Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, with Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island identifying code of conduct training as mandatory. 

“The most common enforcement mechanism for non-compliance is the imposition of sanctions, including suspension of duties,” the advice-to-minister report on Nov. 3 said. “As part of the jurisdictional scan, in some instances no sanctions were identified for mandatory training requirements.” 

It also said that in 2023, post-amalgamation, ELG hosted a local governance orientation that included seven virtual sessions for elected and non-elected officials and one in-person session over a three-week period. Average participation was 281 — more than two-thirds of the 401 officials elected in 2022. 

Emails show the department decided in November it would not proceed with mandatory training, despite not notifying the commission until December. 

On Nov. 14, department official Grace Lee Cutler wrote to Assistant Deputy Minister Jennifer Wilkins that mandatory training was “not proceeding.” 

However, emails show department staff weren’t preparing draft responses to the commission’s recommendations until a month later. On Dec. 19, a letter from Kennedy was sent to Goguen saying the “department would not move forward with an amendment to the Act at this time.” 

“We’re going to work together.” – Local Government Minister Aaron Kennedy

Several municipalities in New Brunswick have come under the supervision of ELG. Both Miramichi River Valley and Sunbury-York South were placed under supervision due to resignations and loss of quorum. Strait Shores and Lakeland Ridges are under supervision due to internal turmoil, code of conduct violations and dysfunction. 

The local government minister said there is too much hang-up on the word mandatory. 

“There [have] been [a] myriad of training opportunities over the last three years since local governance reform was put in place,” Aaron Kennedy said in an interview with The Courier. “There will be a robust post election training that will be available to the newly elected officials and folks who were previously elected, who get reelected, and we are going to do the best that we can to encourage those people to take part in the training.” 

Kennedy said the plan is to identify the barriers for people who do or don’t participate and try to elevate them. He said the issue becomes whether mandatory training fits within the democratic process. 

“If councillors … decide that, for whatever reason, they’re not taking part in mandatory training and then the minister of local government comes in and says, ‘well, that’s lovely, but that’s your decision not to take part in the mandatory training and now these are the repercussions,’ whether it’s a suspension or vacating the seat as extreme as that. I mean these people have been elected. That’s the democratic process,” he said. 

The department will make participation part of the public record, he explained, adding constituents can view that for themselves, question the councillor or mayor, and hold those individuals to account during the next election.

“We’re going to work together,” he said. “The department is there daily to field calls from mayors and councillors and CAOs. If there’s any way that we can assist, sometimes on mundane day-to-day things, we’re able to do that.” 

Kennedy said cost was not part of the decision not to move forward. 

“I think when we look right now, we have three out of 77 local governments in New Brunswick that are under a supervisor. So that means 74 that aren’t,” he said. 

He added the one thing the municipalities placed under supervision have in common is that they were all newly created. 

“One could argue that they were victims of forced amalgamation from the previous government. They weren’t happy, I think it’s fair to say, becoming a municipality in areas that were formerly in local service districts, so there was that sort of frustration, is probably the best word to use going into that process.” 

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