Opposition Spokesperson on Local Government and Participatory Democracy, Natalie Neita Garvey, wants municipal corporations to be empowered to borrow in order to be better able to fulfill their mandates.

Neita Garvey is advocating for what she calls “responsible municipal borrowing and investment”.

She addressed the issue on Wednesday during her contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

“Municipal empowerment does not mean financial recklessness. No one is advocating uncontrolled borrowing or municipal debt crises,” she said, pointing out that responsible nations allow competent municipalities structured pathways to finance transformational infrastructure. Such infrastructure includes markets, transportation hubs, waste management facilities, green public spaces and public parking systems.

“Properly governed municipal financing frameworks, infrastructure partnerships, and other development financing mechanisms deserve serious examination, otherwise what is the purpose of this reform,” said Neita Garvey.

She also called for the ending of what she called the “dependency culture” for municipal corporations, arguing that, “One of the most corrosive features of underpowered local government is institutional dependency. The psychology of dependency has become embedded and dependency weakens innovation”.

Continuing, Neita Garvey said, “Local government cannot exist merely to request assistance. It must solve problems, lead, innovate and deliver. Mayors and municipalities should be constantly asking, how do we improve outcomes? Not, how do we secure the Minister’s permission?”

Remarking that “this issue is larger than any particular administration,” Neita Garvey added that, “It concerns integrity, institutional dignity and community dignity. When local government fails, communities see it as neglect. Mediocrity becomes tolerated and hope is extinguished”.

She also called for the establishment of what she described as Parish Economic Development Agencies while arguing that local government cannot merely maintain roads and collect garbage, maintain markets and cemeteries.

“The future of municipal leadership is rooted in the economic development of our parishes to support rural and urban life,” she said.

Neita Garvey told her fellow lawmakers that Parish Development Committees need to be restructured and given new mandates. However, she remarked that “unfortunately, this is not an area which the present administration takes seriously”.

“The Minister hardly ever gives support to parish economic development both in policies and in practice,” she asserted.

She said their new mandate should include driving investment, coordinating business facilitation, supporting entrepreneurship, promoting local cultural industries, marketing parish competitiveness, and helping to fast-track parish projects.

“One of the great things about Jamaica is that each parish has unique economic potential. The challenge is converting those advantages into real benefits to improve the lives of our people, especially in rural communities,” Neita Garvey said.

According to her, we should be talking about which parish attracts the fastest business approvals, which expands youth employment, which revitalises urban centres and which delivers cleaner public spaces.

-Lynford Simpson