Province continues push for regionalization

The provincial governmenthasamendedits rules forregional service boards in its effort to push the regionalization of services.

On Tuesday Municipal Affairs Minister Kevin O'Brien said the government is clarifying the rules for the boards, which provide municipal services such as waste management, police and ambulance services, animal control, public transportation and fire protection.

O'Brien said people shouldn't see boards as another level of government.

"They don't actually govern, they only manage the provision of a service to the people, that the municipalities have chosen to do in a partnership as compared to doing it on their own," said O'Brien.

Hesaid sharing services is designed to save taxpayers money and isn't an attempt to force towns to amalgamate. He saidvolunteers who already sit on municipal councils will be elected to the boards.

"We don't want any loss of identity or anything like that to the communities in rural Newfoundland and Labrador," O'Brien said.

Some communities ahead of the game

In the Stephenville area some services are already being shared, even though a western regional service board hasn't been set up yet.

The town of Stephenville currently picks up household waste from Lowells Pond, Cold Brook and Kippens. The town also shares animal control services with Kippens and St. George's.Stephenville Mayor Tom O'Brien said so far, sharing services has been working.

"We have a shared cemetery with the town of Kippens both of us pay into, we have a stadium which Stephenville and Kippens pay into, we have a regional aquatic centre that Stephenville, Port aux Port East, Port aux Port West pay into, so we are doing a lot of it now."

Mayor O'Brien said his town is open to sharing services with more communities as long as costs don't rise. So far, he said most of sharing has been voluntary.

For example, he said Stephenville offered to pick up household garbage in the Bay St. George area, but it wasn't cost effective so it never went ahead.

"If communities are mandated into this then they could be costing themselves extra money," O'Brien said.