Platform 2026

The following outline my goals for Arcadia for the next four years. In reality, they are fairly straight forward and simple; 3 main points of focus:

1. Tax relief
2. Transparency
3. Fiscal responsibility

As you may know, I've been very vocal about the manner in which all of our tax dollars have been handled over the past 3 years (since amalgamation). In my view, based on my attendance at council meetings for the past two years is that current council and mayor seem to be intent on spending your hard-earned money on unnecessary, expensive projects which ultimately will impact you, as the taxpayer, in increased debt and higher taxes.

Unless one steps up, there can be no change. So, I am stepping up in an effort to make change happen. I have thought long and hard about this. I recognize that this endeavour may not be easy and involves personal sacrifices. That said, the residents of Arcadia, including me, have been making sacrifices for many years now, owing to the high cost of living, increased costs for everything; food, gas, electricity and notably taxes; both federal and provincial; the latter being the never-ending property assessment increases, resulting in higher municipal property taxes.

No one has stepped up to offer any sort of plan to provide some relief. You and I are expected to contribute more and more, every year. I want to try and make a difference and alleviate the financial burden of all of the residents of Arcadia by reducing unnecessary spending, putting an end to unnecessary projects and ensuring that the millions spent every year by Arcadia are for goods and services that are needed and truly benefit all Arcadians and most importantly lessen the financial burden that the municipality has and continues to place on us.

Simply, I want to set forth on a path that sees a reduction in spending, which ultimately "paves a road" to much needed tax relief for all residents of Arcadia.

In following council "going-ons" for the past 2 years or so, leads me to these questions and has led to my decision to run for mayor to hopefully steer us to a better future:

• Why is council maintaining the tax rate year after year, while the Province continually increases property assessments yearly?
• Why isn't council doing absolutely everything in their power to alleviate these financial burdens, versus ongoing, increased spending?
• Why isn't council returning surpluses to residents in the form of a mill rate reduction?
• Why does council continue to incur costs for debt servicing of $1,494,694 since 2023, on a 1.9-million-dollar debt, with costs ongoing until at least 2042, while having close to $4 million dollars (by end of 2026) in reserves, with what I assume will be ongoing transfers of significant amounts into reserves ($645,679.21 budgeted for 2026)?
• Why is council maintaining a construction trailer, with no washroom, as municipal offices going on 4 years now, costing taxpayers approximately $40,000 per year, the amounts attributed to buildings in the budget; so far over $120,000 since 2023, when 10 minutes down the road is a building perfectly suitable for council's purposes, as it was, up to mid-2023 when used by the Cambridge Narrows village council?
• With a general election 2 months away: Is it prudent to consider hiring new employees? Is it prudent to consider dispatching Requests for Proposals on major projects that could cost in excess of $100,000 if not more?

I am a firm believer in good stewardship of what you own and what you are responsible for in life. Good stewardship means complete transparency to your residents, both financially and ideologically, while responding to the needs of every one of those hard-working residents. It's simple: be transparent and tell us what your plans are for our money.

Council has made it clear; they want to build a new multi-purpose building in Jemseg. They have wanted to do that since amalgamation but steadfastly denied that a building was contemplated. We do not need a new building for Mayor and Council. We have a perfectly suitable facility in Cambridge Narrows that served as municipal/ council office up to amalgamation. It will serve fine moving forward. Let's get rid of the eye sore that is the construction trailer in Jemseg and move staff into a proper building.

The municipal office can coexist with the Post Office, Fire Department, all while not compromising the recreational use of the building. They coexisted prior to amalgamation; they can coexist now. I see no justification in spending millions on a project that isn't needed at this point.

Council seems to have no intention of reducing the tax rate. For the past 3 years they have been transferring your tax dollars (1.2 million to December 2026), into Reserves; stockpiling monies for what is the multi-purpose building they have seemingly committed to building. Why else would they be transferring significant monies from the day-to-day operation budget to Reserves?

They took surpluses and rather than returning these to the taxpayer, rolled these into the general budget and reserves. Regarding the multi-purpose building; any mention of a building until recently was refuted by the Mayor and council as disinformation, until recently. In the Committee of the Whole meeting on March 2, 2026, the newly created "fundraising" working group identified their main priority as raising money towards the building of a multi-purpose building.

It appears clear that council wants to construct a multipurpose building of sorts. There was no public input sought. No one asked what the wishes of the taxpayers were. They have never advised that they were building up a stockpile in reserves and why. Doesn't a project of this size warrant consultation with the people who are ultimately paying for it?

At amalgamation, there were two municipal buildings; one in Gagetown (it was sold) and the Cambridge Narrows Municipal building which has offices and council chambers. For whatever reason, the transition committee felt it was a better use of YOUR money to rent a construction trailer (with no washroom) at a cost of $46,000 a year (per the current budget) to serve as the municipal office, instead of using a fully set up, functional building 15 minutes down the road. That's $120,000 in unnecessary spending since 2023.

It seems the intent was to put the new municipality office in the geographical center of Arcadia, regardless of cost or impact to the taxpayers. There are multitudes of municipalities where the municipal offices aren't in the geographical center of the municipality. That makes no sense at all.

We've been told that the Municipal Building, used by Cambridge Narrows council to mid-2023, is "unsuitable", as it has been deemed a recreational building, yet there is a post office and firehall in that "recreational" building.

Two years ago, it was a feasibility study to either build a new building in Jemseg, or add onto the existing firehall in Jemseg. No consideration was given to existing facilities. Bids were sent out, one was returned. For some reason, council never spoke of that plan again.

Several iterations of that plan have surfaced; first, some sort of residential/ commercial complex built by private money, where Arcadia would rent space and that property taxes would make the lease cost revenue neutral. The latest is that Arcadia has submitted an "expression of Interest" to Horizon Heath to potentially build a building that would house a Collaborative Care Center for Arcadia, even though we have two existing clinics, one of which (Gagetown) was just renovated.

Here's the problem with that. The building according to the Horizon documents has to be a minimum of 5,000 square feet. This is not just a 5,000 square foot building. Council mentioned a multi-purpose center with a daycare center, etc., and municipal office with council chambers, offices. This could be a 10 - 15,000 square foot building.

Cursory research suggests $500 to $1,100 per square foot to construct a medical building. At the lowest number – this is a building that might cost $5,000,000 perhaps higher. Then there is furniture/ equipment. These numbers do not include land, groundwork, water, sewer, parking lots, paving, curb work, exterior lighting, etc. This is an expensive proposition. What project comes in on budget these days?

Council seems to suggest that Arcadia will be building/ financing this structure by; I suppose, draining a large portion of the "rainy day" fund (Reserves) and financing a portion, adding to our already sky-high debt, which will no lead to an increase in our taxes, doubly; by an increase in the mill rate to cover the increased debt, and the ever yearly increasing provincial assessments.

Further, we were advised at a recent council meeting that Horizon Health has made no commitment whatsoever, regarding a Collaborative Care Center in Arcadia. The Mayor confirmed that he was told that even if we had a building now, there were no guarantees that Horizon would ever put a Collaborative Care center in it. This isn't a case of "build it and they will come". Embarking on this project with no commitment is not a good idea. Imagine the ongoing costs if the building cannot be leased once built?

Arcadia (and by that, I mean council) must start exercising fiscal responsibility. That does NOT necessarily mean cuts to recreation, culture, fire and other essential services. It means a careful examination; line by line of the budget, to make certain costs are where they need to be and that there are not costs there that are simply in place to "pad" the budget (i.e. $111,000 in "Urban Rehabilitation/ Beautification/ Other, $30,000 in tree cutting). "Other" expense (not detailed) accounts for $417,464 – 7.7% of the budget. One would expect some explanation in the descriptor box for an "other" entry.

Road services make up almost 20% of the budget with some costs budgeted significantly higher than in years past (i.e. culverts and drainage ditches at $100,000 for 2026, up from $30,000 from previous year). These costs need to be looked at closely for any savings that might be achievable.

Our garbage removal services have been steadily increasing in costs; $301,000 (excluding tipping); up 5.6% from 2025. Is there a way to reduce that cost? We have to start looking at efficiencies; for example, General Administrative costs total $576,486 – 10.7% of the budget. Is that reasonable for a community of less than 4,000?

Since 2023 the operating budget has increased just over $900,000, or 20%. What are we getting for that money? We need to focus on "need" not "wants".

Property assessments in New Brunswick have seen significant increases over the past five years (roughly 2021–2025), driven by a hot real estate market and population growth. Many homeowners have experienced assessment hikes ranging from 20% to over 50% during this period, with some reports of assessments for individual properties rising by over 80%.

The 2025 assessment notices, mailed in January 2025, showed an average provincial assessment base increase of 8.7% over the previous year. Over the four years leading up to 2025, property assessments have risen so significantly that the provincial government noted 70,000 properties triggered a 10% spike assessment cap in 2025, compared to only 3,000 properties in 2024.

Following municipal reforms, some rural homeowners reported assessment and tax increases exceeding 50% over the last three years. In 2025, residential assessments in major cities showed high year-over-year growth, such as 12% in Moncton and 6% in Fredericton.

I can speak from personal experience, having experienced a 58% increase in the assessed value of my home since 2023. Through appeal the current assessment was reduced; however 46% in three years is still a staggering number.

While the Province has "frozen" some assessments this year; keep in mind, this is more so a "deferral. Yes, you may pay less, or equal tax in 2026, if you were one of the residents that qualified for the "freeze. If the freeze is not maintained through 2027; most, if not all residents could see significant hikes in assessed values in 2027, meaning increased property taxes, which ultimately results in increased revenues for the municipality, despite them maintaining it does not.

Even with the "freeze", the 2026 budget for Arcadia is $300,000 higher than 2025.

Municipalities can address rising assessments, simply by reducing the mill rate. They can essentially "wipe" out the increased assessed values, by reducing the mill rate accordingly to "zero out" or come as close as possible to eliminating the increase. Revenues stay relatively static for municipalities, and residents don't get penalized with higher taxes. With that comes the responsibility to maintain or reduce current spending levels responsibly, not to increase them, just because a municipality sees a revenue windfall due to the increased provincial assessments.

Many municipalities have done this; unfortunately, not Arcadia. Council chose to maintain the mill rate, even though there was an opportunity to cut the rate in 2026; council chose not to. How can one be optimistic for the years moving forward, given current council's record?

Council has taken surpluses generated ($80,000 in 2023 and $137,000 in 2024) and rolled those monies over into the General Operating Budget rather than returning them to the residents in the form of a tax rate reduction. Further, council has transferred (or will transfer) significant amounts of your tax dollars paid, to reserves (to the tune of approximately1.4 million) in the past three years.

Surpluses and reserves are excess tax dollars, outside of monies needed to run the municipality on a day-to-day basis. Returning surpluses to the residents and not making significant unneeded transfers to reserves means lower operating budgets, and more importantly, lower tax rates.

The 2026 budgeted reserve transfer of $645,679.21 is 11.9% of the entire 2026 operating budget. What would be the effect on the mill rate with that transfer out of the budget? In 2024, they transferred $443,000 (8.6% of the budget) and 293,000 (5.4% of the budget) in 2023. Again, what impact on the mill rate could have been possible if these transfers were not made.

Bear in mind, Arcadia, at amalgamation, had a very healthy 2.8 million dollar combined reserve; in excess of 50% of the general operating budget for each year, including 2026. For the past few years, council's excuse for not reducing the mill rate boiled down to ever increasing costs and that every cent of the budget was needed to cover the day-to-day expense in running Arcadia. That doesn't seem to "jive", given surpluses and reserve transfers.

Arcadia also has a $1.9 million debt currently. For context, that's roughly $680 per registered voter (approximately 2800 voters). You and I have paid some $1.4 million in servicing that debt since 2023 (including 2026). With close to $4,000,000 in reserves as of end of year 2026, does it not make sense to look at paying off this debt, saving $300,000 to $400,000 per year in service costs? Some of these loans mature in 2042. Think about how much more taxpayers are going to have to put up just to service this debt, when by the end of the year we have twice that in reserves?

I posted these questions at the recent Town Hall meeting. There was no response from mayor or council.

Why does Arcadia need close to $4,000,000 in reserves, bearing in mind the contemplated/ expected use of reserves? What should council be doing with surpluses and transfers to reserves moving forward? Look at the percentage of the total budget these amounts represent and what that might mean in terms of potential tax rate reductions (11.9% of the 2026 budget for example)?

With 4 million in reserves, can we do something with the debt? Paying off the debt eliminates $300,000 to $400,000 in service costs per year, which could have an impact on the tax rate, with a still a heathy reserve remaining.

An FYI – the tax rate in Sunbury York South(population 8000ish) has a rate of 0.80/100 for their Ward 1 and 0.83/100 for their Ward 2 for 2026; They were able to reduce the mill rate by 8.04% for their Ward 1 and 5.68% for their Ward 2. Their 2026 budget is $4,102,232 (compared to 5.4 million for Arcadia)

Butternut Valley (population 5,400 ) just passed their budget and were able to effect a 5.4 cent reduction in the mill rate on a budget of $1,740,059. They have capital projects including municipal offices (they were 5 LSD's amalgamated) at $950,000 and a park/playground project at $300,000. Their mill rate ranges from $1.198 per 100 to $1.22 per 100.

Tax relief and growth can be done…...it takes the will to do it.

The Province and the Municipality cannot rely continuously on the residents for more and more money. We have to:

1. Get our financial house in order, and eliminate unnecessary and unwarranted expenditures.
2. Take steps forward to start alleviating the tax burden on each and every resident of Arcadia. Amalgamation has made us one family. Everyone needs relief. Everyone deserves a break. Relief has to come from the Municipality as it's unlikely to come from anywhere else, anytime soon.
3. Address the significant debt; sooner than later. Imagine what we will have paid out in services cost when all of these debts are paid off. At the end of this year it will be in the range of 1.4 million.

It boils down to what you, as a taxpayer, want. Council, despite surpluses and significant transfers to reserves, seems to have chosen to keep the mill rate as is, despite taxpayers facing higher tax bills every year.

Council had an opportunity for a nominal tax reduction in 2026 and chose not to. I'm not optimistic that this council will ever reduce the mill rate. Maintaining the mill rate; all the while knowing that this is costing the residents more in taxes every year, doesn't deserve a "well done" or "pat on the back".

Another thing I want to strive for is greater transparency, so you as a resident can see what mayor and council are doing with YOUR money. This could be as simple as having meeting minutes out within two weeks instead of four, more updates on the website and/or social media, making financial information (i.e. payments approved during council meetings) available (if possible) to residents, and more Town hall meetings, budget consultations with residents prior to budget approval, more disclosure of information in Committee of the Whole meetings and publishing that information for all residents to see.

There may be some information that cannot be released owing to possible privacy concerns, or legal issues. My goal is to be as open and forthcoming as to what we are doing with YOUR money, as council is legally permitted to disclose.

As a candidate for Mayor, and if I am fortunate enough to be entrusted with your support, I can only guide and set the tone for council. To truly affect change, we need a likeminded council that has the same goals and vision.

Please question your candidates and express to them what YOU want done with YOUR money. I appreciate you taking the time to read through this and hope you get an understanding as to what I want to try to accomplish as mayor. I want to grow the community, but not at your expense. I can't work miracles, but I can tell you that my focus as mayor will be to try and achieve the goals I've set out above.

You deserve that. Please come to any of the planned meetings for all candidates where you can ask your questions, tell me and others what you want your Mayor and Council to do for you for the next 4 years. Thank you again!