Overview
The 2007 Census of Municipal Government in Newfoundland and Labrador indicated that over 70% of municipalities are sharing services with at least one other partner.
Service sharing was most prevalent in the Central region and least common in the Southwest. The vast majority of these partnerships (91%) were with other towns or cities, although service sharing partnerships also exist with provincial agencies and local businesses.
The most commonly shared services in the province, according to survey results, are:
1. Fire Protection
2. Waste Disposal
3. Garbage collection
Joint Councils or Mayor’s Committees are also increasingly common, with 16 such groups existing in 2007 representing more than 180 communities. The 20 Regional Economic Development Boards represent each of the province’s communities. Many also have local tourism and development associations with municipal representation and involvement. Regional recreation programs and/or facilities also exist in many areas.
Examples of not so common initiatives include:
• Community pastures on the Great Northern Peninsula
• Northeast Avalon emergency/911 call centre
• health services, such as Lark Harbour and York Harbour’s VON nurse
• community policing on Labrador’s north coast and in Torbay and the “Killick Coast” area
• increasing numbers of natural resource management and environmental stewardship efforts
• programs for youth and seniors
Joint Councils
Within this section of the website are the profiles of every active joint council in Newfoundland and Labrador. Included in several of these profiles are their joint council constitutions.
Waste Management
This section also provides summaries of early consultations on regional waste management and some early reports. These are interesting documents that provide some assistance in understanding what has gone right and wrong with the regional waste management strategy.