Departing ECan Chair: A Mega-Canterbury Council Wouldn't Work

Friday, 10 October 2025, 4:53 pm
Article: David Hill - Local Democracy Reporter

Environment Canterbury's outgoing chair fears rural voices would be lost if the regional council was axed in favour of a larger, single Canterbury council. 

ECan chairperson Craig Pauling said people can be confused by having separate local and regional council elections at the same time. 

‘‘Many don’t know the difference between district councils and regional councils,’’ Mr Pauling said. 

But he said he did not support scrapping the Canterbury regional council in favour of a unitary authority. 

The future of regional councils has been in the spotlight as the Government overhauls the Resource Management Act. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Resources Minister Shane Jones have suggested looking at abolishing regional councils as part of the reforms. 

ECan has been considering what its future looks like. 

At present, the Local Government Act only allows for a regional council or a unitary authority for regional governance. 

A unitary authority is like a district or city council, but with additional regional council responsibilities. 

Examples include Auckland, Nelson, Marlborough and Tasman. 

ECan held a workshop earlier this year where it considered four models, unitary authorities, a combined council, a regional assembly and a regional environmental leadership body. 

‘‘Unitary authorities can work, but they can also lose sight of the environmental stuff over time, and they can become dominated by urban communities,’’ Mr Pauling said.

While a Christchurch or Greater Christchurch unitary authority has been proposed, it is doubtful whether other parts of Canterbury have a large enough population base to form unitary authorities, he said. 

Based on population alone, a Canterbury unitary authority would be dominated by Christchurch, and the voices of other communities could be lost, Mr Pauling said.

ECan faced this question during its representation review last year, where it considered how to balance the growing population in Greater Christchurch, and in particular Selwyn, against the population of South Canterbury of 60,000. 

‘‘It is an issue the country somehow needs to deal with - the significance of geography and natural resources,’’ Mr Pauling said. 

‘‘It aligns with the Māori worldview. Humans are pretty important, but our natural environment is significant, and we need to look after it. 

‘‘That’s why regional councils are important. If we take them away, who’s going to look after the natural environment?’’ 

The combined council and regional assembly models would operate similar to the Canterbury Mayoral Forum.

Instead of having a regional council election, voters would only need to vote for their local mayor and council, with the council sending the mayor or representatives to serve on the regional body. 

While ECan deputy chairperson Deon Swiggs doesn't have a preference, he believes change is needed.

‘‘I’ve found it really interesting on the regional council, having been a (Christchurch) city councillor. It’s like the poor cousin that nobody can do without. 

‘‘There’s a huge amount of work we do which enables others to do things, which flies under the radar until it goes wrong.’’ 

LGNZ has proposed four year terms, instead of three years, and having local elections run by the Electoral Commission. 

Mr Pauling said if both local and central government elections were held every four years, it would likely mean having elections two years apart.

 If the Electoral Commission ran local elections it would allow for national television advertising, rather than the 78 local, unitary and regional councils running their own elections. 

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

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