Permanent residents could vote in NB municipal elections in 2026

However, due to the complications such a change would bring, it is unlikely to become a reality before the 2026 municipal elections.

It would be a first in Canada.

For nearly 10 years, several Canadian municipalities have adopted motions or launched a debate on the right to vote of permanent residents.

This is among others the case of Vancouver, Yellowknife, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, and Saint John in New Brunswick. But so far, no province has granted the right to vote to permanent residents.

In New Brunswick, several municipal associations support the idea of ​​allowing permanent residents to vote.

Moreover, before 1997, a vagueness in the law theoretically allowed permanent residents to vote.

In 1997, the New Brunswick Municipal Elections Act was amended to specify that voters in municipal elections must be Canadian citizens. Currently, permanent residents cannot vote at any level of government or run for office in Canada.has explained Ryan DonaghyActing Deputy Minister in the Provincial Ministry of Local Government and Local Governance Reform.

A measure that would encourage immigration

The bill to grant the right to vote to permanent residents was tabled by the Liberal MP Keith Chiasson in December 2020.

We are on a roll to attract newcomers here to the province. I think it will send a positive message. It will send a message that we not only want them to settle here in the province, but we want them to participate in the development of their communities.believes MP Chiasson.

Other than the right to vote, people who have obtained permanent resident status have the same rights and obligations as other Canadians. They must pay taxes and are protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

MP Chiasson believes that permanent residents should be able to participate in the democratic process at the municipal level. Currently, they are not allowed to participate, but yet they are established here, they own homes, they have businesses, they pay taxes, they contribute to the Canada pension fund.

The government does not reject the idea

The Progressive Conservative government of New Brunswick has not officially come out in favor of the right to vote for permanent residents. No motions or bills were passed.

However, in parliamentary committee, no member of the party in power spoke out against the idea.

The only representative of the government majority to have spoken, the deputy Jeff Carrwas even shown rather in favor of the idea.

I think we are all progressive enough in our thinking to support what Mr Chiasson is proposinghe said, as soon as he spoke to the Standing Committee on Law Amendments.

A change that will take time to implement

Officials from the Ministry of Local Government and Local Governance Reform argue that the issue of permanent resident voting rights will require many changes.

According to them, it is impossible to make all these changes before the next municipal elections, next November.

Election NB will, according to the Assistant Deputy Minister Ryan Donaghy, add all potentially eligible permanent residents to the voters list. It will be necessary to determine from when a permanent resident would have the right to vote, and if he can, like all voters, stand as a candidate.

It will also be necessary to adjust the situation in the rural districts, and to see how to harmonize the municipal elections with the elections to the education councils, for example, which are usually held at the same time.

More consultations are planned, the assistant deputy minister said.

No change before 2026

According to the assistant deputy minister, the bill should be adopted in 2024, so that the right to vote will be effective in the municipal elections of 2026.

MP Chiasson recalls, however, that the bill was introduced a year and a half ago, and that since then the government has remained silent on the issue.

What is a little deplorable at the government level is that the bill was tabled in December 2020, and now we find ourselves a year and a half later, and it seems that nothing moved. And there are municipal elections coming up in November, important elections, which are linked to the municipal reformhe recalls.

But the Progressive Conservative MP Jeff Carr believes that it is too early to pass a bill, even if it was specified that the date of entry into force would be 2026.

I couldn’t choose an arbitrary date now, not even for 2026he said.

While the aim seems to be to pass a bill in 2024 for the changes to come into force in 2026, MPs have not made any firm commitment to this.