Minister for the Environment Nick Smith and Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide announced the reviews of Environment Canterbury (ECan) yesterday because "its poor performance is holding the Canterbury region back".
The reviews will take a wide-ranging look at ECan, which is based in Christchurch, and are split into two.
One is under the Resource Management Act, and will look at the council's resource consents performance.
The other, under the Local Government Act, will investigate its governance and policy functions, which have resulted in complaints the council has not been serving the needs and aspirations of its region, which includes part of the Waitaki district.
The reviews follow a strongly-worded letter from all 10 Canterbury mayors to the Government critical of ECan, giving voice to criticism from residents and ratepayers in the region which had been going on for years.
That prompted a strong response from former ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke, accusing the mayors of "cowardly and poisonous actions" and an outrageous attempt to undermine him and his regional council.
In contrast, Mr Neill, who was elected to replace Sir Kerry in September, yesterday promised the council would work co-operatively and do everything it could to make sure the Government's team got the information it required as quickly and easily as possible.
"Since I was elected, I have made it very clear that the council will work constructively with both central government and local councils," he said
Asked by the Otago Daily Times if he agreed with the ministers' comment about "poor performance", Mr Neill said he wanted answers rather than deny the council may have problems.
He was not going to get into "slagging matches" with the ministers.
The Government had information regarding ECan's performance with resource consents.
In the 2007-08 financial year it was ranked the worst of 84 local authorities by processing only 29% of consents on time.
Since then, it had made changes which had dramatically im-proved its performance.
"I'm not in denial. There have been areas which have been unsatisfactory. If there remain areas which are unsatisfactory, I'm anxious for those to be addressed," he said.
The council would act on any recommendations which came from the reviews.
Since being elected chairman, Mr Neill had had discussions with the two ministers about a performance review and how that should be done.
In a joint statement, the ministers said the Government was not satisfied with ECan's performance in efficiently processing resource consents, developing a proper framework for managing Canterbury's natural resources, nor with its management of relationships with Canterbury's territorial local authorities.
"We believe an external review is necessary to fix these issues," he said.
The first component of the review is under Section 24A of the Resource Management Act, looking into ECan's resource management functions.
It was the first time those provisions have been used.
The second was a non-statutory assessment under the Local Government Act of Environment Canterbury's governance and policy functions.
Dr Smith had serious concerns about the effectiveness of the council's broader environmental management.
Mr Hide had received strong submissions from Canterbury's mayors about the performance of ECan.
Recent issues about Environment Canterbury's governance and divisions among councillors did not give the Government confidence the council could resolve the problems.
"We are encouraged by the constructive engagement by Environment Canterbury in this process and want to ensure the Government can help the council get back on track," Dr Smith and Mr Hide said.
ECan reviews
Environment Canterbury performance reviews by Government. -
- Under the Resource Management Act (RMA): ECan's performance processing resource consents, developing a framework for managing Canterbury's natural resources and relationships with Canterbury local authorities.
- Under the Local Government Act (LGA): ECan's governance, meeting its legal obligations, management and decision-making processes, financial management and relationships with Canterbury local authorities including collaboration and co-operation.
- Two investigators will work on the RMA review and one on the LGA review, yet to be named.
- Next month investigators will spend up to three weeks with ECan.
- Council staff needed to be available are chief executive (Bryan Jenkins), chairman (Alec Neill), councillors, five directors and managers and staff under those directors.
- A draft report and recommendations will be discussed with ECan before being finalised and going to the two ministers.
- Final report expected by February next year.