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March 22, 1999
(Municipal and Provincial Affairs)


Enactment of a New Municipalities Act

Lloyd Matthews, Minister of Municipal and Provincial Affairs, announced today that a new Municipalities Act, which is the enabling legislation for 288 of the province's 291 municipalities and the 175 local service districts, will be introduced in the House of Assembly during the current session. The new legislation would become effective January 1, 2000.

He said: "The current Municipalities Act was enacted in 1979 and evolved from the Whalen Royal Commission Study on the Structure of Municipal Government in the province. While this legislation provided many new and innovative authorities respecting the administration of municipal government in the province, it was also a consolidation of several different pieces of municipal legislation that existed at that time, some of which dated back to the 1950s. In recent years, it has become obvious that this legislation was deficient in many respects, and accordingly did not provide the legislative tools necessary to address the current and future realities of administering local government in the province.

Mr. Matthews said that in order to address these statutory deficiencies, a comprehensive review of the legislation was undertaken by the Department of Municipal and Provincial Affairs, in consultation with municipalities, the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Municipalities, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Municipal Administrators. This initiative has resulted in a new Municipalities Act that provides increased municipal autonomy in the areas of taxation, administration and financial management, new authority in the area of economic development, and new and expanded authorities in the areas of service delivery and municipal controls. This new legislation should allow municipalities to exercise a much greater degree of local decision making and thereby greatly enhance the ability of municipalities to meet the current and future challenges of local government.

Media contact: John Doody, Communications, (709) 729-1983.

1999 03 22


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