By Mark Squibb/December 30, 2022
Mount Pearl Mayor Dave Aker says without a doubt, the greatest challenge the City faced this past year was the labour dispute with CUPE 2099, a strike that lasted nigh on 11 weeks and shuttered recreation facilities.
“It played out a lot longer than either side wanted,” said Aker. “But we’re glad our employees are back to work. We reached an agreement at the end of the day. And the goal was to try and have an agreement that, frankly, everyone could live with, not necessarily be happy with. We regret that we had some parts of the city and some of our services shut down for up to 12 weeks, but our staff is back to work, and we have a great team at the City of Mount Pearl, and that includes the unionized members of CUPE 99. Not everybody, in any workplace, will be happy at the same time. But we strive for a good working relationship with our employees, and we recognise and congratulate our staff for the good service they deliver to the residents and businesses of Mount Pearl.”
The strike was certainly contentious. At one point, Aker accused picketers of bullying and harassing staff members as they went to work while CUPE Local 2099 President Ken Turner, who has since been fired, said those accusations were a tactic being used to turn the general public against the workers.
Aker said Turner’s termination was a personnel matter and, when pressed, said it was not related to anything that occurred during the strike.
He noted that despite the strike, City Days and Oktoberfest celebrations, though delayed, did take place, and he’s looking forward to a strike-free summer in 2023.
The labour strife aside, the skyrocketing cost of pretty well everything posed another major challenge for the City this past year.
“There is no doubt that inflation has been a major factor in our thought process, and we don’t see inflation coming to an end very soon,” Aker admitted. “I think things will deflate very slowly over the next two or three years… The world is trying to make up for two years of very lacklustre economic activity due to COVID, so there’s a lot of catch up to do. It’s hard to forecast without a crystal ball, but I think you’re looking at more like a two-to-three-year timeframe than just a few moths.”
The cost was one of the reasons council opted to back out of a regional economic development agreement with neighbouring communities.
“We’re more focused on the grassroots part of economic development, and the impact on our community and small business involvement,” said Aker. “The regional economic development piece that was done this past year, looked at setting up an organization, you could call it, some type of non-profit corporation where each of the municipalities could be stakeholders in that outfit. And the primary purpose there was to market the region for markets outside the province — national and international. I think when we all looked at it we were a bit surprised at what it would cost, not just Mount Pearl, but the other three large communities along the Avalon.”
Aker allowed the cost would not be sustainable in the long run, and so the municipalities are looking at a different model. An announcement, he said, will likely come sometime within the next year.
Meanwhile, City Hall accomplished quite a lot this past year, Aker said.
“There’s always a lot of infrastructure work going on in the city, and we managed to get a lot of projects done this year,” said Aker. “We kept our bridges maintained, and we did some paving. And that will always be the focus, ensuring that the transportation network in the city is second to none.”
Aker said council and staff have been working on a number of plans that will see fruition in the years to come, including a new strategic plan that will be announced in the spring of 2023.
“We’ve also put a lot into planning the Kenmount Hill development area into ensuring some further growth in the city. And we’ve been focused too on our civic centre. The challenge with the civic centre is that it’s going to be the capital cost. Council is quite aware that it’s going to take funding to build the place. And as we’ve said when we brought down the budget, capital expenditures have really gone through the roof. Anything manufactured is costing a lot more than it did in previous times.”
Earlier this December, council passed a balanced budget of $56 million, and while much of the media focus has been on higher mil rates, contracted snow clearing (a first in the City’s history), and a $4 million increase in expenses, Aker focused elsewhere.
“One of the smaller things that’s worth noting, and it’s very important to our residents, is that we’re investing in safety,” said Aker. “We’re going to be expanding our team of municipal enforcement officers to provide more coverage throughout the city, and they’ll work with our residents and businesses, and also, importantly, they’ll work with the RNC, in not just by-law enforcement, but also traffic enforcement. They’ll have a look out for petty crime and work with the RNC to ensure our community continues to be a safe place to live. So that investment, which is about $100,000 a year, council felt was really important, and we’re happy to invest in that area.”
To that end, he said, the City is working with the provincial government to ensure that ticketing via camera surveillance becomes a reality.
