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Martin Ruben, mayor in the Rural Municipality of Victoria who has a background in public sector and not-for-profit corporate governance, provided the following opinion article.
Many municipalities, including Victoria where I am the mayor, are challenged to meet their statutory responsibilities. This means that municipal council members are providing their time with significant risks for their personal liability should something go wrong. The failure of administration of public funds hits taxpayers’ pocket books across the province. This cycle is unacceptable and must end.At the recent Federation of P.E.I. Municipalities annual general meeting, provincial Minister of Housing, Land and Communities Rob Lantz told the mayors, councillors and chief administrative officers representing the municipalities across P.E.I. how their work is improving the quality of life for Islanders.
In Victoria, for example, the municipal government is expected to deliver all of its services with an operating budget of approximately $325,000, including the operation of water and sewer services. Municipal government is not scalable and the small budget means that many services required by the MGA are not delivered efficiently or effectively.
Only 30 per cent of the land area of P.E.I. is administered by municipal governments and only 10 per cent is covered by a land use plan. This lack of provincial leadership has resulted in unplanned or poorly managed development across the Island, among many other shortcomings.In other provinces, all the land except for very remote areas and parkland is subject to municipal government and land use planning.
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