Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick

The Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick is an organization representing 58 member municipalities in the Province of New Brunswick. All municipalities are welcome to be a member and at the present time membership consists of cities, towns, and villages. The objectives of UMNB are to:

• Unite the Municipalities of New Brunswick, through their respective councils, into a body whose common effort shall be devoted to the achievement of that which is to the benefit of all.
  
• Promote the exchange of information among the Municipalities of New Brunswick.
  
• Co-operate and liaise with other organizations and agencies toward a united front for the realization of municipal goals.
  
• Prepare and present to government position papers that reflect UMNB concerns/interests
  

At no time shall the political or religious partisanship of a representative member be expressed or be allowed to influence the policies of UMNB. Our Province is divided into nine zones with two directors from each zone sitting on our Board of Directors along with one director representing the Cities of New Brunswick. At the moment, Zone 8, the county of Gloucester, is not represented on our Board of Directors as all those Municipalities belong to our sister organization, AFMNB.

The Board of Directors of UMNB generally meet four times a year (February, May, August & November) plus before and after our Annual Conference (October) and deals with items/issues brought forward from our members, or the Provincial and/or Federal Governments. With the exception of the meetings in August and our annual conference, all Board meetings are in Fredericton.
The current Board of Directors consists of:

Executive Committee:		Zone
Past President
President	Mayor David Hanson, Rexton	1
1st Vice President	Mayor Teresa James, Blacks Harbour	4
2nd Vice President	Mayor Arthur Slipp. Woodstock	6
3rd Vice President	Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase
Sec Treasurer	Councillor Beth Thompson, Quispamsus	3
Directors:		Zone
Councillor Paul Gillespie, Doaktown		1
Mayor David Hanson, Rexton		1
Deputy Mayor George Forsythe, Hillsborough		2
Mayor Terry Keating, Salisbury		2
Mayor Ken Chorley, Hamptony		3
Councillor Beth Thompson, Quispamsis		3
Mayor Stan Choptiany, Saint Andrews		4
Mayor Teresa James, Blacks Harbour		4
Mayor Gary Mersereau, Fredericton Jct.		5
Deputy Mayor Gisele McCaie-Burke, New Maryland		5
Councillor Julie McConaghy, Millville		6
Mayor Arthur Slipp, Woodstock		6
Councillor Tracy Culligan, Belledune		7
Councillor Jacqueline Leclair, Dalhousie		7
Mayor Richard Keeley, Grand Falls		9
		9

UMNB also has several ad hoc committees which have been set up over the past few years to deal with specific issues. These are usually of short duration but require representation from among our membership. At the present time we have in place a Fiscal Advisory committee, a Governance committee, A Policing committee, a Conflict Resolution committee, a Forestry committee, and a Population Advisory/Growth committee. In particular, the Conflict Resolution committee was established in conjunction with the AMANB. This committee is available to assist in resolving disputes which occur at the local level whether they are between elected and elected or elected and staff. We have not had any municipality make use of this procedure yet but are hopeful that we will be able to assist during the upcoming term when necessary. We believe that we can save both time and money and bring about successful resolution to issues. Please call upon us if necessary.

There are several issues upon which we are working today – as mentioned above policing, governance, population growth, economic development are all issues of importance to us. UMNB continues to wait for detailed action on government reform and will continue to monitor it as we move forward to ensure that municipal interests are protected.

Membership dues are based on assessments and decided by the annual meeting from recommendation by the Board of Directors.