ECan To Debate Future Of Regional Council

Tuesday, 26 August 2025, 10:51 am
Article: David Hill - Local Democracy Reporter

There has been speculation about the future of regional councils, but Environment Canterbury's chair is confident these elections won't be the last. 

The Canterbury regional council will debate a paper aimed at encouraging discussion on the future of regional government at a council meeting on Wednesday. 

Earlier this year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Resources Minister Shane Jones hinted that regional councils could be abolished as part of the Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms. But Environment Canterbury (ECan) chair Craig Pauling said changes take time. 

‘‘I think even if the Government made a decision now, it would still take a few years for the changes to take effect. 

‘‘There are a lot of functions that Environment Canterbury looks after and there will still need to be an entity to fulfil those functions and the analysis still hasn’t been done.’’ 

Under the Local Government Act there are only two options to take on the wider regional functions such as managing rivers and environmental regulations - regional councils and unitary authorities. 

But Mr Pauling said there are other options which could work better in the Canterbury context. Councillors discussed four options, including unitary authorities, a combined council, a regional environmental leadership body and a regional assembly, at a workshop last month. 

If the latest council paper is approved, it will be forwarded to local councils, Papatipu Rūnanga and to the Government for consideration. 

‘‘The current form of local government was established in 1989, but the world has moved on and there are other models,’’ Mr Pauling said. 

He suggested the Government could change the Local Government Act to offer ‘‘a third pathway’’ to allow regions to come with their own solutions to regional governance. 

One of the flaws with the present regional council model was the overlapping consenting model between local and regional councils, Mr Pauling said. 

‘‘A waste management plant can be consented from a landuse perspective without making it public and then the first the regional council knows about it might be when they come to the regional council for an air discharge consent.’’ 

He said Canterbury’s councils were getting better at joint consenting, but it was not the most efficient model. 

Public transport is another area, with local councils responsible for providing infrastructure such as bus stops, interchanges and roads, with the regional council responsible for the buses and setting bus routes. 

A Christchurch or Greater Christchurch unitary authority has also been mooted, but questions have been raised about whether the rest of Canterbury would have a sufficient ratepayer base to manage regional council functions.

A Canterbury assembly would be based on the Greater Manchester model, where the existing local councils could continue and the mayors or council representatives and Mana Whenua representatives could form an assembly to make regional decisions, with a regionally elected mayor. 

The regional environmental leadership body model would comprise a mix of appointed, elected and Mana Whenua representatives. 

A combined council would be similar to the Canterbury Mayoral Forum, comprising the region’s mayors, a regionally elected chairperson and Mana Whenua representation. 

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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