While provincial and federal issues can dominate the news, the upcoming election of St John’s City Council is just as important for local residents as the ones for other levels of government this year.
Housing issues have taken the lead here and across the country, and the city has a crucial role in helping to address that crisis. And many of the other issues the public has raised in the past like the difficulty of getting around the city without a car are still very much of concern and largely the city’s responsibility to address.
Fundamentally, council’s role is to do the best it can for the residents, businesses and institutions in the city by setting priorities and a budget that reflects those priorities. The city is legally required to balance its budget and despite ongoing negotiations with the province for many years to give it more powers and funding options, it has a limited number of ways it can raise the money it needs.
Whatever the council decides to prioritize, the future financial state of the city is always an unknown. A number of city functions are supported by other levels of government. With federal and provincial elections looming, that support may not remain the same. The fast-changing national and international scene may also have an impact.
In addition there are substantial longstanding bills that will likely come due in the next few years. The two examples we know of both relate to our water supply. The city has been negotiating since 2019 with the federal government about its obligation to provide secondary waste water treatment and the deadline set for resolution is already past. In 2019, the city said the cost of completion could cause water rates to rise by 20%.
And this year also saw a city report on the state of the water supply. It suggested it needed to find $205 million over the next 25 years to address problems including sub-standard water pressure to fire hydrants in several areas. City staff pointed out this sum would be “well beyond what is currently allocated” for maintenance.
It is against this backdrop that councillors will be trying to maintain existing services, fund improvements and address longstanding problems across the city.
Running the city is about much more than collecting your waste and keeping the streets clean. For example, the public has long been seeking improvement to the city’s sidewalk snow clearing and the city has responded by increasing its efforts in recent years. Climate change has also emerged as an issue and the city has drafted plans both to reduce our emissions and to adapt to future challenges.
There is little doubt the most important issue facing the city in the minds of the public is the housing affordability crisis. As far back as 2018, the City produced an Affordable Housing Strategy 2019-2028 report. It noted that according to 2016 data there were around 12,100 households paying more than a third of their income on housing costs, and 15,000 whose housing was inadequate, unsuitable or unaffordable. But since then the problem has only worsened.
There have been several high profile council approvals for larger apartment building constructions but the pace of actual building starts is much smaller and continues to fall behind demand. In 2024 only 80 new housing units were started in St John’s itself, according to the CMHC (up from 48 the previous year). Meanwhile, across the St John’s Metropolitan Area excluding the city itself 791 housing units were started in 2024.
When the federal government first offered funding to support city plans to boost affordable housing, the council’s first request was only expected to result in 91 extra units over three years. Even the revised measures the council passed are only expected to result in 280 extra units over three years.
Our analysis last year of the city’s planning changes to boost housing is here.
In cities across North America, transit systems suffered because of drops in ridership during COVID and have struggled to recover. In St John’s, however, Metrobus has had the opposite problem. In 2021, Metrobus provided 2.2m rides. By 2024 that number had more than doubled to 5.1m - higher than it has been for at least 40 years, though it appears to have peaked and has dropped slightly this year. The organization’s budget has not kept pace. It was $24.6m in 2021 but had only risen to $30.2m by 2024.
Metrobus in recent decades planned its long term strategy using a series of five year plans - each of them preceded by a report commissioned by an independent consultant. The last of these only planned out until 2023 and in any case would likely have needed substantial revision because of post-COVID changes in ridership and usage patterns. Several of the recommendations made in that report have not been carried through - notably the gradual extension of free bus passes to schoolchildren up to the end of high school. And this time the Transportation Commission and council have not commissioned an independent report on its future plans and have said little about what it would like to accomplish in future overall except to adopt more of the recommendations from the 2019 report when possible, seek to make all buses run at least half hourly, and to proceed with a plan to electrify the bus fleet.
Even without a long term plan there have been some welcome improvements. The city has implemented some new routes and improvements to existing ones. It has also been experimenting with an “on demand” bus service. This was started in part as a replacement for a Signal Hill shuttle service that was run by MUN and most of its features are only available to MUN students. More shuttle buses have been ordered to support the service, though it is not clear how well it is running or what their plans would be for extending it.
There will be a sizeable investment over the next few years (with the support of the federal and provincial governments) in starting to convert Metrobus’ fleet of diesel buses to fully electric models. While this will likely take a fair amount of management time and may involve some teething issues, it is clear that the city (like most North American cities) has been having increasing difficulty getting replacement parts and service for diesel buses so the move is inevitable. The overall number of buses on the road has risen slightly in recent years - from 54 in 2019 to 60 now - but it does not appear that the city that alongside the move to electric buses it plans to significantly expand the total number of buses further or to re-organize the shape or extent of the routes themselves.
Fear of crime and disorder is a recurring theme in municipal politics and St John’s is no different. Statistics Canada numbers do suggest an increase in crime levels in the city and surrounding areas, but it is unclear how significant this increase is. Both crime itself and fear of crime are social problems that need to be addressed, however, and the city can have a role in doing so. The city received $1.8m of federal funding in 2023 to develop a crime and violence prevention strategy and established a Building Safer Communities Committee with representatives from the police, related provincial departments and a range of non-profit groups. In October 2024 it produced a report outlining a number of planned actions. Some key outcomes were $575,000 a year of federally-supported grants which were given in 2024 and 2025 and will be available in 2026, going to a range of community groups. City staff will be offered additional training, and a web page will be provided on the city’s site with support and advice for violence survivors and parents.
The city will be calling on the province to implement and enforce standards for private and non-profit shelters for people experiencing homelessness and for provincial standards for short term rentals. And this points to a larger issue - that to a large extent the social determinants of crime like poverty, homelessness and addiction are primarily the responsibility of higher levels of government. The RNC in particular polices St John’s and is overseen and paid for by the province, so any changes in policing have to be negotiated by the council. Of course the city can also supplement the RNC’s functions by measures such as employing security guards.
And there are other ways the city’s core functions can directly and indirectly deter crime and make our spaces feel safer. On a small scale, the city can improve the design of parks and public spaces with better lighting, more open space and by enhancing the appeal of such areas by making them easier to get to and use. On a larger scale, ensuring newly developed and redeveloped areas have mixed uses - shops and parks and bus stops as well as housing for example - has been shown to increase “eyes on the street” and deter crime.
The size and complexity of the problems that the city faces can be daunting, and it will need to work closely with federal and provincial governments as well as the network of local organizations which support residents. But addressing these problems has to start with a clearly articulated plan bringing together all levels. The city council with its close connection to its residents and their concerns is best placed to shape the path forward. We hope this overview will help guide you in your discussions with candidates and will encourage them to spell out their own visions for change.
Our thanks to MUN Political Science students Jobyda Gulshan Ara and Mim Rahman whose research into city issues helped inform this overview.
In the last few days we have hosted or helped to host three debates among the candidates for city council in the upcoming election. Click the headline above for a post with Youtube links to all three - each has automatically-generated transcripts of what was said.
Please watch the candidates setting out their views on the issues affecting the city and share the links widely to residents in advance of the vote!
Shape the Future of St. John’s – 2025 General Election
Your voice matters. Your vote counts. Your city needs you.
The 2025 General Election is your chance to influence the direction of St. John’s. Municipal leaders have a direct impact on your everyday life — from snow clearing and road repairs to recreation programs and city development. Make your voice heard by participating in this important election.
This page will be regularly updated with new details as the election approaches. Be sure to check back often!
