Sage Eugenie: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 11 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5047. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
11. 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Local Government 
: Does he think it is fair to require Cantabrians to pay around $78 million in regional rates annually with no elected regional councillors deciding how to spend those rates? 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister of Local Government) 
: 
 In view of the extraordinary circumstances that Canterbury faces yes. What was not fair was for Cantabrians to have to pay rates money to a regional council in 2008 that was rated the worst out of 84 councils in New Zealand. What was not fair was that those Cantabrians had to pay rates to a regional council that was consistently described as ineffective and dysfunctional and when every mayor in Canterbury signed a letter to the Government expressing a vote of no confidence in Environment Canterbury and its councillors including the member asking the question. 
Eugenie Sage 
: Is the cancellation of regional council elections for what will be 6 years consistent with the statutory purpose of local government “To enable democratic local decision-making and action by and on behalf of communities”? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: As I said in an earlier answer it is my wish that local democracy works but in a case like in Canterbury where the regional council was not working was dysfunctional and was ineffective the Government had to act. 
Eugenie Sage 
: If he trusts the citizens of other regions to elect regional councillors who can provide “stable effective and efficient” planning governance and if he trusts district councils in Canterbury to elect district councillors why does he not trust Cantabrians to do the same for their regional council? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Because I am aware of no other council in New Zealand about which a report was presented to the Government that made comments like “the extent of the gap between the capability of ECan and what is required for it to adequately manage freshwater issues is enormous and unprecedented.” or “ECan’s performance … falls well short of what is essential.” or further “This failure requires comprehensive and rapid intervention …”. 
Eugenie Sage 
: Given that commissioners have been appointed now for the last 2 years what progress have they made if he is still harking back to 2010 and the failings he considers the council had then? What progress have commissioners made? 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: The commissioners have made tremendous progress. They have recently published the  
Canterbury Natural Resources Regional Plan 
 they have recently published the  
Proposed Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan 
 they have recently made significant progress with the Canterbury freshwater management strategy and they have significantly improved the relationship with key stakeholders. As I mentioned earlier they have dramatically improved the compliance with statutory consent time lines. These commissioners have done a fantastic job. The job is not yet completed but the member should recognise that progress is being made.