Service commission fired after months of deadlock over budget

The province has stepped in and disbanded the board that handles solid waste management and land planning for a large area between Hampton and Anagance, about 30 kilometres northeast of Sussex.

The 11-member board for Regional Service Commission 8 was deadlocked for months over how to manage its $2.2 million budget for 2019.

Former Fredericton city clerk Brenda Knight has taken over all board decisions for the commission, which also serves the municipalities of Norton, Sussex Corner and Sussex along with 14 local service districts.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment and Local Government said via email that the minister of local government can appoint a trustee if he feels the board isn't functioning or fulfilling its obligations.

"Basically under the Act, [the budget is] one of the responsibilities of the board and failure to carry out that responsibility resulted in the province taking action, I guess," said Steve Roberts, the commission's executive director. 

The management of solid waste is a key role of New Brunswick's regional service commissions, and it was an attempt to change the way that process is financed that caused the breakdown, said Roberts.

The budget proposed moving from a flat rate system that had been in place since 1995 to a rate based on tipping fees. 

Only five of the 11 board members supported the budget during a November meeting.

Two local service districts and all four incorporated municipalities voted against the budget.

The regional service commission does not have its own landfill. It operates a transfer station in Sussex, where recyclables are separated.

Waste is then shipped to the Southeast ECO 360 plant in Moncton.

"There were some board members, I think, that felt that putting all of the cost on the tip fee may have been the end of the transfer station and they felt the service was valuable to the public," said Roberts.

Sussex Mayor Marc Thorne describes the proposed budget as "unacceptable."

He said it was prepared by a finance committee at a time when it was operating without a quorum. 

"The [service] commission, since it was created in January 2013, has always struggled to get a budget passed. And over the past few years it's become increasingly harder to do that," said Thorne.

The town of Sussex felt the budget threatened the future of its solid waste transfer station and separation of recyclables that takes place there.