During the 2021 election campaign, I made 16 commitments to Moncton citizens.
I achieved most of my commitments, but I failed in some cases. My apologies. I tried.
Here is the list of the 16 commitments with the results for each one.
1) Appoint a liaison councillor to work with key stakeholders to resolve the issue of public safety before the end of summer 2021. By ‘resolving the issue’, I meant adopting and implementing a plan to reduce crime. My motion was defeated by a majority of Council. I tried again in 2022. Again, a majority of Council rejected it. I succeeded on my third attempt: Council adopted my motions to make public safety the priority of our strategic plan and to establish a committee to draft a crime reduction and prevention plan. Council will adopt the plan in April.
2) Hire 13 Community Police Officers by the end of summer 2021 and make sure they have the necessary powers to ensure the safety of our residents and our businesses, to prevent crime and to enforce our municipal by-laws. We had 11 Bylaw officers in 2021; we now have 20. That is 4 short. But I successfully moved to establish a crime reduction and prevention committee. Its report recommended adding 8 Peace Officers. We should have 28 in 2027.
3) Establish a City Task Force on Economic Growth made up of economists, business leaders, business support groups and other economic actors, to draft the city’s long-term economic growth strategy in light of present and future trends and opportunities. The idea did not find favour amongst my colleagues, so I pursued measures such as landing flights to the U.S. and Europe, setting up and nurturing a Health Hub with our universities, our health authorities and other local and international health partners, and supporting our local artists who export their talents abroad and contribute to our economic prosperity. Progress has been slow. I will try again if re-elected.
4) Transform the 7 segregated units in our city into modern integrated neighbourhoods by 2030. By 'segregated units', I mean the seven residential developments built in Moncton by the Province for social assistance clients. I convinced Council to establish a working group with the Province to launch a pilot project on Lewis Street. The other units should follow. If the transformation is successful, we could create 2,000 affordable units by 2036. Progress has been slow. I will propose another motion in April that should accelerate progress.
5) Enforce and enhance Plan Moncton requirements for additional affordable housing units in the City. Although a new Plan Moncton was supposed to be adopted by 2026, Council only appointed the Planning Committee in 2025. I sit on this Committee. It is considering affordable housing. However, its report will not be completed before May 11.
6) Find and invest the required funds to ensure that our social organisations can achieve our social inclusion goals. I worked to adopt a new Social Inclusion Plan. This was done in 2022. I sit on the new Social Inclusion Committee. With the collaboration of Councillor Paul Richard, we convinced Council to invest $100,000 per year on social inclusion. Most of the funds are allocated to local social organisations that support local inclusion initiatives.
7) Make social inclusion and homelessness a priority of the upcoming Council. Council’s number one priority is public safety, but homelessness and social inclusion are secondary priorities. In addition, I convinced Council to consider the social inclusion impacts of every decision we make, so it is constantly on Council’s front burner.
8) Reduce the need for shelters and meals by 50% before the next municipal elections. I failed. Sorry. In fact, the need increased fourfold since 2021: the number of homeless rose from 215 in 2021 to 830 in 2026.
9) Find out why 2/3 of citizens do not vote, then implement measures that will increase our voter turn-out to at least 50% by 2029. I made a motion on this. Council asked its Enhancing Democracy Committee to look into it. The Committee disbanded in 2025 without addressing this issue. Council did not appoint new members to the Committee. If I am re-elected on May 11, I will try again to implement commitments (9) and (10).
10) Propose a Democracy Bylaw to make City Hall more democratic and accountable, notably by (a) reviewing the existing ward system to ensure it serves the interest of citizens, (b) reviewing ward boundaries after every census to ensure an equitable voter distribution, (c) holding regular public meetings in each ward to exchange with citizens on important Council activities and City issues, (d) appointing a committee of citizens six months before the elections in order to encourage citizens to run for office and to vote on election day, (e) imposing limits to candidate campaign expenditures for city elections as well as obligations to divulge contributions, and (f) imposing full transparency on Council, notably by limiting the number of issues decided behind closed doors. I made a motion on this. Council asked its Enhancing Democracy Committee to look into it. The Committee disbanded in 2025 without addressing this issue. Council did not appoint new members to the Committee.
11) Make the Province and the City sign a long-term agreement to plan together all future provincial buildings, especially schools, based on forecasted growth areas and existing and planned City infrastructure. There is no agreement, but formal discussions are now held. It is not ideal, but collaboration is much better than before.
12) Ensure that Council proposes changes to municipal governance that will make a difference for Moncton and our citizens. I have made several motions to improve Council decision-making, notably changes to our procedural bylaw. I also convinced my colleagues to update and prioritize our strategic plan according to citizens’ wishes. Other improvements are in the works and should come into effect for the next Council elected on May 11.
13) Conduct a thorough review of all City services before 2025 to determine (a) what services must be provided and why, (b) if additional services should be provided, (c) if we invest enough in basic services, and (d) how to provide existing and additional services more effectively and efficiently. I did not proceed with (a), (b) and (d) because, unbeknownst to me prior to the May 2021 elections, Council had already set in motion a process that would achieve similar results. I followed up with (c) by proposing several measures to increase funding for public safety.
14) Force Council to establish a culture of accountability to citizens, notably by (a) publishing press releases on bad news as well as good news, (b) publishing audited updates on major capital projects, (c) consulting citizens on major capital projects, (d) holding regular public meetings in each ward to account for Council’s actions, (e) posting on the City web site the list of motions and how each member of Council voted on each motion, and (f) posting on the City web site the electoral commitments made by each member, so citizens can compare them with actual votes. I tried but failed to achieve (a), (b) and (d). I did not try to implement the other mechanisms. Sorry. I will try again if re-elected.
15) Aggressively purchase downtown surface parking lots, then give them free of charge to the developer who submits the best proposal to develop the lot, in order to increase public transit ridership and city revenues as well as to accelerate downtown development. I made a motion to this effect, but it was defeated. The decision was confusing because staff recommended against it even if it was already approved in the municipal plan. I’ll try again if re-elected.
16) Reinstate frugality on Council and focus spending to maximise results. During each of the four budget deliberations between 2021 and 2025, I initiated the tax rate reduction to match expenditures. Council agreed and reduced the rate by 17.5% between 2021 and 2025. We could not reduce it in 2026 because the Province froze existing property assessments. By comparison, the city’s tax rate had remained the same from 2016 to 2021.
In addition to commitments, several unplanned issues arose between 2021 and 2026 which deserved Council’s attention. Among other things, the Vision Lands development took a positive turn in 2022 with the adoption of a new cost-sharing formula between the City and the owners of the six large lots involved. Development is finally imminent. I proposed that a fifth regional park (after Centennial, Mapleton, Irishtown and Riverfront) be developed in the middle of the area. Also, the 2023 municipal and regional reforms added to Ward 2 the land and residents west of the city limits. Although imposed by the Province, this gave Council an opportunity to review its property tax rules. I took advantage to propose a reduction to the taxes collected on the Salisbury Road because the businesses and residents did not have the same quantity or quality of services as are provided elsewhere in the city (ex: sidewalks, recreational facilities). The majority of Council voted against my motion. At the request of citizens, I worked on major new initiatives like creating a Committee on Multiculturalism (voted down by the majority of Council), establishing several pre-Deportation Acadian heritage sites along the Petitcodiac River as a tourist destination (in the works), and transforming Main Street into a pedestrian mall during the summer months (in the works).
For more details on my 2021-2026 commitments, consult my 2021 elections web site: http://tiny.cc/bourgeois