Report into dysfunctional N.B. municipality will remain secret

The New Brunswick government says a report into the dysfunction that led to the suspension of a municipal council earlier this year must remain secret.

The province is refusing to release the report by the supervisor it appointed to run Lakeland Ridges.

"The supervisor's report itself will not be made public due to confidential and personal information included in the report," said Heather Pert, a spokesperson for the Department of Local Government.

Coun. Randy Stairs turned down an interview request but said the report had not been given to councillors, either.

Lakeland Ridges is a sprawling rural municipality of 2,600 people taking in the former villages of Meductic and Canterbury, between the St. John River and the Canada-U.S. border.

It was created as part of the provincewide local government reform on Jan. 1.

The province's Control of Municipalities Act allows the government to appoint a supervisor when a municipality can't pay its bills, when there aren't enough councillors for the quorum required to hold a meeting or when council "is not able to carry on the business of a council."

A council meeting last June didn't go ahead when councillors couldn't agree on an agenda. 

The two municipal office staff, chief administrative officer and clerk Susie Patterson and deputy clerk-treasurer Lana Sharpe, went out on medical leave. Another council meeting scheduled for July was cancelled because a temporary clerk still wasn't in place.

In August, former Meductic mayor Steve Manuel told CBC News that some members of the municipal council were determined to make the newly merged municipality unworkable.

"The group needed to work together and that just is not happening," he said at the time. 

Mayor Tanya Cloutier turned down an interview request in August and did not respond to a request on Tuesday.

Stairs said in August that the supervisor appointed to run the municipality, Michael Blaney, had "strongly suggested" that councillors not speak publicly about what was going on.

The government named Blaney, a former mayor of Gagetown, as supervisor last summer and later replaced him with Greg Lutes, a consultant and former provincial deputy minister. 

Rather than release Lutes's report, the province published a two-page "transition plan" he developed.

The first phase, to be completed by Dec. 15, includes requiring municipal councillors and staff to "sign intent to follow" the plan.

It also calls for the hiring of mediators and the updating of the code of conduct "to reflect inspector's recommendations and 2023 observations." 

A note on the plan says mediation "to resolve individual issues and interpersonal relationships" would probably need to continue past Dec. 15.

"The speed at which conflict can be resolved depends upon the complexity of the issue, the individuals involved, and their ability to find consensus to conclude a resolution," it says.

Future phases, to be finished by March 2024, include developing a strategic plan for the next two years, the possible creation of council committees and "supervised council meetings" to be held with the help of a "procedural coach." 

The current council's mandate runs until municipal elections in May 2026.