let's talk - The Official Site of The City of Saint John / Le Site Officiel de The City of Saint John

let's talk

Let's Talk Ward Meeting Follow-up

The City of Saint John has published documents, one representing each Ward plus the meeting held in French on its website. The documents contain preliminary responses from questions gathered during 14 meetings held last October and November.
Over 700 citizens attended the meetings. Deputy City Manager of Programs and Priorities Andrew Beckett, who facilitated the meetings, presented a post-meeting report to Common Council in January.

“Although we are later getting back to our citizens than we would have liked, the Administration has been working on the Corporate Strategic Plan which will serve to address many of the service and infrastructure concerns raised at the meetings,” said Beckett. Beckett added that some concerns were addressed directly with the individuals involved shortly following the meetings. “The nature of many concerns won’t lend themselves to a short term fix, although we are confident, with the strategic plan we can begin to look at long term solutions.”

In general, several concerns were raised at every meeting:
• Trust – there is a general lack of trust towards Council and City Administration. This was expressed through concerns over transparency of decision-making, openness and lack of responsiveness.
• Customer service – residents consistently expressed frustration in terms of timely response and follow-up from City Departments.
• Infrastructure maintenance – there is an expectation that better care will be taken with regards to the maintenance & upkeep of existing infrastructure.
• Attention to “Front-Door” Issues – a significant number of the issues raised at the meetings were localized, curbside items that residents feel have been left unattended. Items such as street maintenance, garbage collection, speeding, and street cleaning were consistently raised as areas where concerns existed.
• Communication – our citizens expect more timely, accurate information.

Please click on the appropriate link. Note: additions and updates will be added as supplemental documents.