Latest news with #Mauger
Otago Daily Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Christchurch mayor backs govt-capped rates rise
By Tim Brown of RNZ Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger is backing calls for the government to cap rates rises. Cabinet will consider options to control rate rises, including capping, later this year. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has complained of councils' wasteful spending, comparing local politicians to kids in a candy store. "Councils don't always do a great job of spending your money like you would spend it. There are wasteful projects - there is evidence of that," Willis told RNZ's Morning Report programme yesterday. "We want councils focusing on the things people expect them to do, which is the rubbish, the roads, the pipes, the basics - and not all the fanciful projects." Mauger told RNZ he could not agree more. "Everyone campaigns 'ohh, we gotta stick to basics', right? And then the first thing some of us do is go away and not stick to basics," he said. "We need to be stronger around the council table to say what's basics. Now ... someone's basic might be someone else's must have ... but it's good to have rates caps. I feel it's good. I really do." Earlier this year, the Taxpayers' Union launched a campaign calling for rates to be capped at inflation levels. Mauger imagined a cap closer to 5%, saying his council was "very close to what I'd call the rates cap". He conceded it would not be possible to cap rates at inflation. "If it's low as that we would struggle with that. I think to get down to 2 percent, if the government put a rates cap at 2 percent on it, I think there's a lot of problems." Christchurch City Council had approved average rates increases of 6.4%, 9.9% and 6.6% this term, as a result average rates bills had climbed almost 25% in the city this triennium, while inflation had only risen about 8% during that time. Willis told Morning Report she expected push back from councils "because when you take candy away from kids in a candy store, they don't really like it. But at the same time, we are on the side of ratepayers". Asked if he was acting like a kid in a candy store, Mauger told RNZ: "No - when it's my own money, it is. But when you're spending other people's money, [rates caps] are good". "If we had money running out of our ears, you'd spend it on other stuff. We haven't got that at the moment." He agreed with Willis that councils had engaged in wasteful spending, and when asked for an example he pointed to cycleway spending. "We've wasted money on how we have designed and built cycleways. Now I'm not against cycleways but we can build them one hell of a lot cheaper - a lot, lot cheaper," Mauger said. The council had budgeted $210.4 million for new cycleways, improvements, and cycleway and footpath renewals over the next decade in its long-term plan. However, that only accounted for 3.2% of its budgeted $6.5 billion in capital spending. With major projects, such as Christchurch's new stadium and new sports complex almost complete, rates pressure would ease in the future. But Mauger said the council still needed to find other ways to cut its cloth. "What we've got to look at is our levels of service now. "Everyone expects when they walk out the door, they expect the footpath to be half-good, they expect the gutter to be falling the right way, they expect the water to be not leaking out of the ground, the grass mowed and rubbish picked up - that's what they expect. "If we backed off and didn't mow the grass as often or didn't pick up the rubbish as often, that's how we could save some money. I can't say that's how you would, but that's how we can do it quicker and easier." Rates caps had been panned by Labour leader Chris Hipkins - who said it would make the problem worse not better - and Local Government New Zealand president and Selwyn District mayor Sam Broughton - who said capping rates could be "disastrous for communities".
Otago Daily Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Mauger supports govt-capped rates rise
By Tim Brown of RNZ Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger is backing calls for the government to cap rates rises. Cabinet will consider options to control rate rises, including capping, later this year. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has complained of councils' wasteful spending, comparing local politicians to kids in a candy store. "Councils don't always do a great job of spending your money like you would spend it. There are wasteful projects - there is evidence of that," Willis told RNZ's Morning Report programme yesterday. "We want councils focusing on the things people expect them to do, which is the rubbish, the roads, the pipes, the basics - and not all the fanciful projects." Mauger told RNZ he could not agree more. "Everyone campaigns 'ohh, we gotta stick to basics', right? And then the first thing some of us do is go away and not stick to basics," he said. "We need to be stronger around the council table to say what's basics. Now ... someone's basic might be someone else's must have ... but it's good to have rates caps. I feel it's good. I really do." Earlier this year, the Taxpayers' Union launched a campaign calling for rates to be capped at inflation levels. Mauger imagined a cap closer to 5%, saying his council was "very close to what I'd call the rates cap". He conceded it would not be possible to cap rates at inflation. "If it's low as that we would struggle with that. I think to get down to 2 percent, if the government put a rates cap at 2 percent on it, I think there's a lot of problems." Christchurch City Council had approved average rates increases of 6.4%, 9.9% and 6.6% this term, as a result average rates bills had climbed almost 25% in the city this triennium, while inflation had only risen about 8% during that time. Willis told Morning Report she expected push back from councils "because when you take candy away from kids in a candy store, they don't really like it. But at the same time, we are on the side of ratepayers". Asked if he was acting like a kid in a candy store, Mauger told RNZ: "No - when it's my own money, it is. But when you're spending other people's money, [rates caps] are good". "If we had money running out of our ears, you'd spend it on other stuff. We haven't got that at the moment." He agreed with Willis that councils had engaged in wasteful spending, and when asked for an example he pointed to cycleway spending. "We've wasted money on how we have designed and built cycleways. Now I'm not against cycleways but we can build them one hell of a lot cheaper - a lot, lot cheaper," Mauger said. The council had budgeted $210.4 million for new cycleways, improvements, and cycleway and footpath renewals over the next decade in its long-term plan. However, that only accounted for 3.2% of its budgeted $6.5 billion in capital spending. With major projects, such as Christchurch's new stadium and new sports complex almost complete, rates pressure would ease in the future. But Mauger said the council still needed to find other ways to cut its cloth. "What we've got to look at is our levels of service now. "Everyone expects when they walk out the door, they expect the footpath to be half-good, they expect the gutter to be falling the right way, they expect the water to be not leaking out of the ground, the grass mowed and rubbish picked up - that's what they expect. "If we backed off and didn't mow the grass as often or didn't pick up the rubbish as often, that's how we could save some money. I can't say that's how you would, but that's how we can do it quicker and easier." Rates caps had been panned by Labour leader Chris Hipkins - who said it would make the problem worse not better - and Local Government New Zealand president and Selwyn District mayor Sam Broughton - who said capping rates could be "disastrous for communities".
Otago Daily Times
06-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Stopping ratepayer-owned asset sales main focus for union members
Union members are ramping up a campaign ahead of October's local body elections, urging voters to back candidates opposed to the sale of ratepayer-owned assets. They are concerned if the Lyttelton Port Company was sold or partly sold to private interests, jobs could be lost or wages and conditions affected. Debate over asset sales like the port company, the airport, Orion, Enable and Citycare is a long-running political football in Christchurch elections between left and right-leaning mayors and city councillors. A key figure in the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) says members will ask people to vote for candidates who are against selling the city's assets. They will not endorse particular candidates. Said RMTU Lyttelton Port branch secretary Mark Wilson: 'Your vote is your vote. But we ask that voters consider what a candidate's stance is on selling public assets and infrastructure.' The campaign does not have the formal support of the two port unions, RMTU and Maritime Union. But Wilson said it has 'very significant' support among members of both organisations. 'The unions and us as workers do have to be careful about what is said as employees of LPC, but this campaign is more about what the council might do rather than our employer.' Under the banner of new political pressure group, New Zealanders for a Democratic Economy (NZDE), union members and supporters are organising public events, demonstrations and are canvasing public places to drum up opposition to key asset sales. Although the new group is not directly endorsing candidates, Wilson said the campaign is likely to favour left-leaning candidates and the Labour-aligned The People's Choice candidates who oppose key asset sales. Wilson believes Mayor Phil Mauger and right-leaning city councillors support selling the port and other key assets either through full or partial sale of shares. But Mauger says he remains firmly committed to 'protecting Christchurch's ownership and value in strategic assets.' Mauger did not respond to further questioning from The Star asking whether he would support partial sales of key assets and in what form. "During my campaign and since being mayor, I have made it clear these key assets should be controlled by the council,' he said. Mauger has no issue with the union members' campaign, saying they have every right to 'engage in public debate on matters like asset ownership.' Wilson said NZDE want a more clear position from Mauger on asset sales. "It will make things a lot easier for us. We hope he and councillors will clearly lay out what they have done in the past term on asset sales and what they plan to do next term.' Wilson believes a sale of the port company or other key assets could lead to worker unions being sidelined. "Private-owned companies, particularly some big, foreign multicorp is just interested in making as much profit as possible, so they don't have much of an interest in good pay or safety for workers.' The People's Choice chair Paul McMahon welcomed the campaign and said some of the group's candidates will be present at anti-asset sale events. "We're happy to work with anyone to oppose asset sales.' McMahon said there is a one-seat majority of city councillors currently opposed to asset sales. He believes if one more city councillor who favours asset sales is elected, there will be a new push for sales next term. An LPC spokesperson declined to comment and referred questions about a possible sale to Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL) which owns city assets on behalf of the city council. A CCHL spokesperson said there are no current investigations into selling shares in key assets and any sale decisions rest with the city council.
Montreal Gazette
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Montreal Gazette
Montreal's move to biweekly garbage collection proving to be a slow process
The garbage may be piling up and causing some disgruntlement on the sidewalks of a few Montreal streets, but municipal officials say it's all part of a plan to become a zero-waste city by 2030. And they say their plan is working. 'People are making progress in their thinking, realizing that when they participate in the recycling collection, the organic waste collection, that there is not much waste left,' Marie-Andrée Mauger said. As a member of the city's executive committee in charge of ecological transition in Mayor Valérie Plante's Projet Montréal party, Mauger is the point person overseeing a switch that has reduced the frequency of garbage collection in some neighbourhoods to a biweekly pickup. Three boroughs — St-Laurent, Verdun and Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve — have started implementing the plan, which is also a part of Plante's pledge to 'make Montreal the greenest city in North America.' But residents in Mercier—Hochelaga-Maisonneuve are not thrilled with the stench. Jonathan Haiun, a spokesperson for Ligue 33, a community group in eastern Montreal that advocates for quality of life issues, said spacing out the collection hasn't had the desired effect since it was brought in late last year. 'The problem seems to be some people who just aren't composting or at least not doing it properly, and then a lot of the stuff that we do find in the garbage is just a mix of everything,' Haiun said. 'What we have been asking for since the beginning is that they go back to collecting garbage every week because we don't feel that that's actually an ecological measure.' According to the most recent survey results conducted for the city and obtained by Ensemble Montréal, the opposition party at city hall, about 54 per cent of residents polled consider switching to trash pickup every two weeks 'unacceptable.' Meanwhile, other major Canadian cities have had biweekly pickup for years: Toronto since 2008, Halifax in 1999 and Vancouver in 2013. In each case, there were growing pains, but all happened hand-in-hand with organic waste collection. Mauger said she expects once composting extends to 100 per cent of the city by the end of 2025, things will begin to shift. According to the Léger city survey, less than half of Montrealers use the so-called brown bin to dispose of organic waste and their knowledge of what goes in the bin has only risen by one per cent, to 41 per cent, since 2021. The survey results aren't surprising, and transition rarely comes without complaint, said Karel Ménard, a Montreal environmentalist. 'I think it's a shared responsibility between the citizens and the municipality, which has an obligation to have a clean and healthy city,' said Ménard, head of Front commun québécois pour une gestion écologique des déchets, an organization that promotes ecological waste management. 'Also, I would even say the producers, because what we often see in the alleys are short-lived, disposable items, so there's also a problem of overconsumption.' Many municipalities in the Greater Montreal area and elsewhere in Quebec have switched to biweekly pickup, if not every three weeks or monthly in some cases. But Greater Montreal is mainly suburbs with single-family homes, which isn't the case in the city's boroughs. 'There are 900,000 doors in Montreal, plus 40,000 businesses, industries and institutions that have municipal collection,' Mauger said. 'We estimate that 80 per cent of the buildings in Montreal don't have their own driveway, so it's not really one size fits all.' The zero waste plan places an emphasis on reducing food waste, more composting and recycling. The city has also prohibited the use of single-use plastic items, like cups, utensils and straws. Opposition councillor Stephanie Valenzuela of Ensemble Montréal said the polling results suggest Projet Montréal has a lot of work to do. 'The results really speak to the amount of energy and investment the city has been putting into informing residents on the goals that we're trying to achieve,' Valenzuela said. Valenzuela said the public reaction also contrasts with how the administration has portrayed itself as being innovative and avant-garde when it comes to the environment. 'We've seen that when it comes to their big promises, when it comes to the environment, they're actually missing the mark,' Valenzuela said. But Mauger is confident the city will be able to extend biweekly pickup to all 19 Montreal boroughs by 2029. 'What we see in this poll, it's also that three-quarters of the population are aware of the problem of sending too much waste to the landfill that's filling up at a very high pace,' Mauger said. 'And they want to do more to be part of the solution … so that's really promising, too.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2025. This story was originally published July 2, 2025 at 10:16 AM.
National Observer
02-07-2025
- Politics
- National Observer
Montreal's move to biweekly trash pick up is a slow process
The garbage may be piling up and causing some disgruntlement on the sidewalks of a few Montreal streets, but municipal officials say it's all part of a plan to become a zero-waste city by the year 2030. And they say their plan is working. "People are making progress in their thinking, realizing that when they participate in the recycling collection, the organic waste collection, that there is not much waste left," Marie-Andrée Mauger said. As a member of the city's executive committee in charge of ecological transition in Mayor Valérie Plante 's Projet Montréal party, Mauger is the point person overseeing a switch that has reduced the frequency of garbage collection in some neighbourhoods to a biweekly pickup. Three boroughs —St-Laurent, Verdun and Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve — have started implementing the plan, which is also a part of Plante's pledge to "make Montreal the greenest city in North America." But residents in Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve are not thrilled with the stench. Jonathan Haiun, a spokesman for Ligue 33, a community group in eastern Montreal that advocates for quality of life issues, said spacing out the collection hasn't had the desired effect since it was brought in late last year. "The problem seems to be some people who just aren't composting or at least not doing it properly, and then a lot of the stuff that we do find in the garbage is just a mix of everything," Haiun said. "What we have been asking for since the beginning is that they go back to collecting garbage every week because we don't feel that that's actually an ecological measure." According to most recent survey results conducted for the city and obtained by Ensemble Montreal, the opposition party at city hall, some 54 per cent of residents polled consider switching to trash pickup every two weeks 'unacceptable.' Meanwhile, other major Canadian cities have had biweekly pickup for years: Toronto since 2008, Halifax in 1999 and Vancouver in 2013. In each case, there were growing pains but all happened hand-in-hand with organic waste collection. Mauger said she expects once composting extends to 100 per cent of the city by the end of 2025, things will begin to shift. According to the Leger city survey, less than half of Montrealers use the so-called brown bin to dispose of organic waste and their knowledge of what goes in the bin has only risen by one per cent, to 41 per cent, since 2021. The survey results aren't surprising and transition rarely comes without complaint, said Karel Ménard, a Montreal environmentalist. "I think it's a shared responsibility between the citizens, and the municipality, which has an obligation to have a clean and healthy city," said Ménard, head of Front commun québécois pour une gestion écologique des déchets, an organization that promotes ecological waste management. "Also, I would even say, the producers, because what we often see in the alleys are short-lived, disposable items, so there's also a problem of overconsumption." Many municipalities in the Greater Montreal area and elsewhere in Quebec, have switched to biweekly pickup, if not every three weeks or monthly in some cases. But Greater Montreal is mainly suburbs with single-family homes, which isn't the case in the city's boroughs. "There are 900,000 doors in Montreal, plus 40,000 businesses, industries, and institutions that have municipal collection," Mauger said. 'We estimate that eighty per cent of the buildings in Montreal don't have their own driveway, so it's not really one size fits all." The zero waste plan places an emphasis on reducing food waste, more composting and recycling. The city has also prohibited the use of single-use plastic items, like cups, utensils and straws. Opposition Coun. Stephanie Valenzuela of Ensemble Montréal said the polling results suggest Projet Montréal has a lot of work to do. "The results really speak to the amount of energy and investment the city has been putting into informing residents on the goals that we're trying to achieve," Valenzuela said. Valenzuela said the public reaction also contrasts with how the administration has portrayed itself as being innovative and avant-garde when it comes to the environment. "We've seen that when it comes to their big promises, when it comes to the environment, they're actually missing the mark," Valenzuela said. But Mauger is confident the city will be able to extend biweekly pickup to all 19 Montreal boroughs by 2029. 'What we see in this poll, it's also that three-quarters of the population are aware of the problem of sending too much waste to the landfill that's filling up at a very high pace,' Mauger said. 'And they want to do more to be part of the solution … so that's really promising too.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2025.
