Call to split up ECan slammed as 'kneejerk'

Otago regional leaders are warning that "kneejerk" recommendations to split up Environment Canterbury could have major impacts regionally and nationally, and lead to a "fraught process" if replicated elsewhere.

• ECan split suggested by panel

The warnings follow the recommendations of a Government-appointed review panel that Environment Canterbury (ECan) be dissolved; a separate authority be established to manage water in Canterbury; and a commission be appointed to manage the changes until future elections were held - most likely in 2013.

The results of the review ordered by Environment Minister Nick Smith and Local Government Minister Rodney Hide were made public yesterday.

Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Cairns had not seen the report but had been briefed and said it sounded "very scary to me" for the people of Canterbury who, under the recommendations, might not get a say in the future of water in their province.

The recommendations could have an impact on Otago if they went further, he said.

"It'll have an impact straight away and potentially on regional governance nationally."

Water, along with air and land, was an essential constituent in the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of a region that regional councils looked after, he said.

"It's taking one major leg off the stool and putting it into a non-democratic process where people do not get a say.

"That is not for me."

He thought the recommendations were a "kneejerk" reaction and hoped they would not be taken up.

Otago Regional Council chief executive Graeme Martin said water quality and quantity issues could not be divorced from land-use activity.

"Separating water from land use might be a fraught process."

When asked what implications the report could have for the future of regional councils, Mr Martin said an important question was whether one more local authority in Otago would be an advantage.

"We work closely with Canterbury, do things differently than Canterbury, but we all have this problem of how to effectively and efficiently do things."

ECan chairman Alec Neill responded to the report's recommendation for a drastic overhaul of his regional council, saying the devil was "in the detail". He hoped the Government would move promptly to make decisions on what recommendations it would implement.

"Where there is instability it will create difficulty in continuing good governance," he said, referring to potential uncertainty among his councillors and staff.

Mr Neill emphasised the Government had made no decisions.

"It has been made clear to me by the ministers that there will be rigorous consideration of the options . . . before any final decisions are made," he said.

ECan would work constructively with the Government to reach the final decisions.

Mr Neill did not see it as a template for similar Government changes to other regional councils.

"I see this as a specific solution for Canterbury," he said.

Main recommendations
- Establish a separate new entity to manage water in Canterbury.
- Replace the council with a commission to manage the changes.
- No elections for councillors until 2013, or earlier.