Smith threatens sack for 'hopeless' ECan

Environment Minister Nick Smith has attacked Environment Canterbury (ECan) in Parliament, saying its performance is "hopeless" and that he is not ruling out sacking elected councillors.

Smith's comments yesterday have upped the ante in the debate over the need for regional councils.

It is the first time Smith has slammed ECan publicly.

The remarks follow last week's Ministry for the Environment report on the effectiveness of the country's 85 councils in handling resource consents that put ECan bottom of the table.

Smith has sent a letter to ECan and eight other councils reminding them of his powers under the Resource Management Act (RMA) to replace elected councils at their own expense.

He told them they had 60 days to report on how they would change the situation.

ECan chairman Sir Kerry Burke said last night that he was confident the council's reply would deal with Smith's concerns and underline ECan's substantial improvements in handling consents in the past year.

In Parliament yesterday, answering National's Selwyn MP, Amy Adams, Smith said ECan's compliance rate for dealing with notified discharge consents within legal time limits was "an appalling 3 per cent".

ECan "fairly" noted its performance was compromised by the issue of freshwater management, and the Government needed to take a greater lead in that area, he said.

"However, I also note that Environment Canterbury's performance is hopeless in all consent categories, for which there is no such excuse," he said.

Adams also asked if Smith would consider replacing the current ECan council.

"I do not rule out using those powers," Smith replied, "and await the response to my letter, in which I have challenged the organisation to provide within 60 days a plan as to how it will fix this serious problem."

The Press understands some ECan staff have been talking about the implications of the Government sacking the council and appointing a commissioner or commissioners.

Last week, Smith announced that the Government would take charge of water management, one of ECan's key responsibilities, until it was satisfied it was in the hands of the right agencies "at the right level". Earlier, Smith's technical advisory group members, including leading green advocate Guy Salmon, recommended abolishing regional councils as part of the Government's streamlining of the RMA.

Burke said Smith's comments were fair on the historical performance, but the council had made dramatic improvements.

It had lifted consent-processing times from 29 per cent compliance in the 2007-08 financial year to 67 per cent since last July.

He said the council had the largest, most complex consent workload, particularly dealing with highly contestable water applications, compared with other councils, which dealt with "garden sheds".

ECan chief executive Bryan Jenkins said the council also adopted a collaborative approach with applicants, which often led to a less expensive process and a better environmental outcome.

- © Fairfax NZ News