The Courier Editorial Board
As the budget season for municipalities gets underway, all to be settled before the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it’s a time to reflect but also to set a vision for the future.
A budget is a defining document that sets out the dollars and cents for a municipality’s operations, setting also priorities for infrastructure, recreation and future taxation. But there is one little snag in the process – the provincial two-year assessment freeze on property tax.
In May 2025, the provincial government put a freeze on residents property assessment – the largest funding source for municipalities in New Brunswick – accounting for roughly 83 per cent of their budget revenue, according to the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB). It is certainly a headache for those sitting around the council chambers. One we hear the grumbles of right now.
Municipalities took on additional geography and population as part of amalgamation in 2023 – completed by the then-Progressive Conservative government. A moment of relief for those who had been calling for such change for many years – but ultimately was left unfinished without corresponding fiscal reform. Without fiscal reform, it doesn’t mean much.
“Councils need money now,” Dan Murphy, the executive director of the UMNB, told The Courier in April.
According to UMNB, the 2022-23 municipal reform increased the number of people living in a local government by 38 per cent, but without any funding mechanism added to help.
It is particularly concerned about the infrastructure gap, measured at $2.5 billion. The organization said a report showed there is a nearly $200 million shortfall in funding to municipalities. This is a severe funding shortfall in most councillors’ goals for their respective areas – many of whom want the best for their constituents – but also to improve the area where they live.
Hope has been flashed to municipalities a few times – local governments will see an additional $138 million in funding for 2026 as part of a new and long-awaited fiscal reform framework.
But UMNB said it lacked details – and still does. Legislation was passed in June. But the full fiscal frame and funding model keep getting pushed back. It was 2026, now it is delayed until 2027. It’s has been said that “municipalities are children of the province,” but to achieve meaningful success and self-determination, they must surely be allowed to break free of that fiscal chokehold.
In a time when municipal leaders are facing unprecedented harassment and intimidation, and when constituents are rightly demanding more of their local governments, shouldn’t that urgency demand a decisive response from a provincial government that is also facing its share of public pushback?
