Parker supports taking over certain ECan duties

The Christchurch City Council should take over public transport and possibly other key functions from troubled Environment Canterbury (ECan), Mayor Bob Parker says.

Environment Minister Nick Smith yesterday told the city council that a decision on ECan's future would be made by Cabinet in "a matter of weeks, not months".

He hinted that the Government might not take the strongest action available, which involved sacking the ECan and giving commissioners a total say on water issues.

A "short, sharp intervention" might be the best answer, but Smith said he had no personal preference yet.

Parker said that whatever the decision, there was potential for a city-wide unitary authority to "take control" of buses and possibly air and water-quality consents that directly affected the city rather than the wider region.

It is the first time Parker has publicly backed the concept, but he saw it as a long-term solution rather than happening before this year's local body elections.

Smith also discounted the idea in the short-term, saying the Government was at its limits of local government reform with the Auckland super-city concept well advanced, but the unitary model had "merit".

Smith met the city council to get feedback on a Government-commissioned report that recommended sacking elected ECan councillors and replacing them with commissioners. A separate regional water authority has also been recommended.

Smith said Canterbury was "rich and blessed" with its water resources, but the "substandard" management of that water needed to be addressed.

The feedback from councils, farmers and other parties had delivered a consistent message that ECan was dysfunctional, Smith said.

At yesterday's ECan meeting, several regional councillors said the review had never described ECan as "dysfunctional".

They were also angry at Cr Rik Tindall's comments in The Press yesterday likening the Wyatt Creech review to the burning of the Reichstag in 1933.

Cr Pat Harrow said that comparison was "the last nail in the coffin".

- © Fairfax NZ News