Moncton sewerage commission focus of meeting

The environment minister will meet with the mayors of Moncton, Dieppe and Riverview on Friday to discuss changes to the way the Greater Moncton Sewerage Commission operates, following a scathing report by the province's auditor general.

The report, released last month, found a series of problems at the commissionranging from excessive travel to financial mismanagement and lack of accountability.

Moncton city manager Jacques Dubsaid the first order of business will be to figure out how to replace the people who have resigned.

"In the short term, we need obviously to replace a few people that have left the board and in the medium term, we need to sit down and work as a group to come up with a new governance model," he said.

The municipalities need more control over how the commission works, said Dub.

"One of the shortcomings that the auditor general pointed out was that there could have been a higher level of dialogue between the commission and the municipality. This would absolutely institutionalize that and make it systemic, that's an important element as well."

Dub expects the province to change regulations by the spring to make the sewerage commission more accountable to the three communities of Greater Moncton.

Calls for changes

The Opposition Liberals have called for a public inquiry and for the chairman to be immediately removed from his position.

Environment Minister Margaret-Ann Blaney has said she's willing to look at changes to the way wastewater commissions are run,but she is not prepared to fire anyone.

The auditor general's report calls on the provincial government to strengthen the governance and accountability of wastewater commissions. It also recommends the province replace the various long-time board members.

Two representatives from the city of Moncton recently resigned from the board Jillian Porter and Paul Belliveau.

Sylvia Michaud, who served as the Dieppe representative, resigned in August.

Ed Pitre, who represents the provincial government on the board, said he's thinking about his options.

Meanwhile, the board's chair, Ron LeBlanc, who was singled out in the report for questionable spending, including his Blackberry bill that averaged $550 a month, and $9,600 a year in office expenses, for which no invoices were filed, has also said he isconsidering whether he'll stay at the commission.