By Chad Feehan / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Mount Pearl Mayor Dave Aker will be bringing a common message for government when he attends the Urban Municipalities Committee Meeting in Pasadena this weekend.
The committee is a subgroup within Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador and represents towns and cities in the province with a population of over 3000 people. It meets quarterly.
Aker, along with the mayors of 22 of the province's largest municipalities, will be sharing with MNL their comments and concerns in hopes of directing the parent group’s lobbying efforts on their behalf.
Obtaining and maintaining an adequate workforce to deliver municipal services is among Aker’s chief concerns, as well as acquiring funding for City operations.
“We’re all looking for more funding, we need more funding to pay for operating costs which inflation has ultimately made very, very much more challenging,” he said.
A discussion about how MNL can support urban municipalities in new ways is also on the agenda.
Aker also intend to brief his colleagues on his city’s efforts to update the City of Mount Pearl Act. He said the years-old current Act is proscriptive in outlining what the City is able to do, and needs to be updated to enable more autonomy. That will require enabling legislation from the provincial government in the legislature.
“What we’re hoping is the new Cities Act will speak to legislation that enables larger communities like Corner Brook and Mount Pearl to do our business without having to go to Municipal Affairs and always consult,” he explained. “We have very good professional staff. We have enough scale that we can muster all the resources required, including financing, debt management, all of those things that make a municipality operate effectively.”
Mount Pearl’s recent acquisition of $6.1 million dollars under the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Housing Accelerator Fund will also be discussed at the meeting.
