Local service district (New Brunswick)

A local service district (LSD) is an administrative unit for the provision of local services in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Not a local government, LSDs relate to predominantly rural areas of the province that had been de-municipalized by dissolution of County Municipalities and not re-incorporated as municipalities around centres of population. 
As management units collectively referred to as unincorporated areas, the LSDs' application has evolved to fit changes in communities over time, and they define their communities to varying degrees.
They are defined in law by Regulation 84-168, the "Local Service Districts Regulation - Municipalities Act". In 2017 the Municipalities Act was replaced by the Local Governance Act, which continued Regulation 84-168.
Provincial government guidelines require capitalising the words local service district only if they follow the specific part of the name: e.g. "Flatlands Local Service District" but "the local service district of Flatlands".
History.
The Royal Commission on Finance and Municipal Taxation was established in 1962 by Order-in-Council 62-185, tasked with performing a comprehensive review of the province's municipal structures and taxation. The Commission's report, released in 1964, recommended sweeping changes in the provinces municipal structure, including abolishing the incorporated county municipalities that governed rural areas of the province. Those rural areas that provided one or two services normally provided by municipalities, primarily fire protection, would be served by local service districts.
The Municipalities Act of 1966 enacted the changes recommended by the Byrne Commission. Local service districts were established on November 23 by Order-in-Council.
92 local service districts were established in 11 of the province's 15 counties. Gloucester (which today has more local service districts than any two other counties combined), Charlotte, Kings, and Northumberland Counties did not have any local service districts. Of the 92 LSDs, 86 were civil parishes; 81 provided only fire protection, while six added street lighting in at least part of the LSD, four added community services and recreational facilities, and one added garbage collection.
Distribution.
As of 1 June 2019 there are 236 LSDs. There have been an additional eighty former LSDs, most of which were incorporated as, or absorbed by, municipalities. The number of concurrent LSDs peaked at 291 in 1991 and has been declining since 1995.
There are 133 Parish LSDs (plus fifteen former parish LSDs), which range from entire parishes, such as Cardwell, to areas left over after large numbers of LSDs have been separated, such as Shippegan. The parishes of Gagetown, Grand Manan, Hampstead have never had parish LSDs; Huskisson, while unstated in Regulation 84-168, is part of LSD the parish of Harcourt.
The remaining 103 LSDs (plus 62 former) vary in nature – two are school districts dating from the original creation of LSDs in 1966, one is an island, one a pair of islands, several are centralised communities like Elgin, most are decentralised communities or groups of communities (which can approach the size of parishes), and two resulted from mergers in 1996 (Chaleur) and 1999 (Allardville) that included three (two parish) and two (one parish) LSDs respectively.
False LSDs.
The number of LSDs is sometimes misstated, due to the existence of three units that can be confused with official LSDs: areas with increased or decreased services, Taxing Authorities, and Census Designated Places that are called Local Service Districts.
Operation.
Property owners are taxed at a rate determined by a provincial Local Services Manager to pay for services. These assessments may be for facilities situated in the LSD, services operated locally or purchased from a neighbouring municipality, or shared costs of operation of facilities in a municipality. LSDs that become rural communities are subject to LSD taxes for services provided by the province.
The base rate, which includes fire protection, is $0.6315 per $100 of assessed value for owner-occupied residential properties. Non owner-occupied residential properties pay provincial tax as well as any taxes for services beyond fire protection; business pay 50% more than the total rate for non owner-occupied residential properties.
Services.
Originally all services within LSDs were voluntary, administered by area citizens and paid for by local property taxes. The provincial government has gradually taken over the administration of some services at the provincial level, with regional service commissions taking over many others. Regulation 84-168 has not kept up with these changes in administration, updating listed services only when boundary changes or addition of new services have taken place. Fire protection and recreational facilities are often paid for through cost-sharing with municipalities or other LSDs.
Services within LSDs can be grouped into two categories - mandatory and voluntary services. Mandatory services are:
Voluntary services include, but are not limited to:
Local participation.
Local service districts have always had the ability to elect advisory committees; the requirements for establishing such committees have changed since 1966.
Currently 25 or more residents who are qualified to vote under the Elections Act may petition the Minister of Local Government to call a meeting for the purpose of electing a committee; a simple majority vote at such a meeting is sufficient to establish a committee. There is no minimum number of voters required to elect or re-elect an advisory committee. LSD advisory committees are elected for a term of four years according to the government's cycle for general municipal elections. Elections may be held outside municipal election years if replacing a dissolved committee or establishing a committee in an LSD that previously lacked one. LSDAC elections are handled by the Department of Local Government, not Elections New Brunswick; because of this, elections do not require normal polling hours, nor do they require widespread advertising or a centralised website that lists them, often resulting in low voter turnout.
LSDs may establish an advisory committee of three to five members if a public meeting with sufficient eligible voters is held. LSD advisory committees are disbanded if their membership falls below three. The Committees have no legislative or taxing authority, but work with the Local Service District Manager to administer services and set local budgets.
Advisory committee presidents are asked to participate on regional service commission boards. A certain amount of consulting and service contracts are awarded as a result of LSD service activity, which provide economic activities.
Local governance reform.
The provincial government has been encouraging local service districts to participate in reforming government administration in rural areas.<! citation will follow> The rural community, an incorporated but non-municipal body, has been the most common model, although incorporation into existing municipalities has also been pursued. Since 2006 a total of 24 LSDs have become incorporated into rural communities or municipalities:
There have been dozens of other projects that are still in progress or have failed for various reasons, some reaching the plebiscite stage, many simply lacking local support to proceed to asking the government to conduct a feasibility study.
There have been at least two attempts by municipalities in Millville and Norton to devolve to local service districts, both rejected by the provincial government.
Criticisms.
The term 'Democratic deficit' was used by Jean-Guy Finn (Local Governance Task Force, 2010) to describe an "unbalanced local government", as in: many residents without representation at a local level (35% of population and 90% of the provincial territory) and limited competition for elected offices (1/3 of municipal councils with less than 2000 pop acclaimed) 
Boundary issues.
The boundary descriptions of LSDs have not sometimes suffered from ambiguous language or lack of update of existing LSD boundaries when a new entity was created. Originally most LSDs were defined by parish boundaries or grant lines; in the 1980s provincial property identity numbers began replacing grant lines; since the mid-2000s maps showing property lines have been the norm. All methods have led to problems: