On Sunday 13 October, voters will be called to elect their municipal and also provincial representatives ! For the last time ? That is possible. Does this diminish the importance of this election ? Absolutely not.
In its Regional Policy Declaration, and following the historic results of the elections of 9 June, the new Walloon government decided to launch a profound reform of the Provinces.
And as our President told us on the 1st of September in Ciney, the aim is not to attack the services but to reduce the number of political mandate holders. That is why he stressed that these elections will be important, decisive and historic. The future elected representatives will have the task of accompanying the change while preserving services and staff. With the aim of strengthening the quality of service to the population.
The task seems daunting. And yet... Thanks to the work and forward-thinking spirit of the Mouvement Réformateur, the Namur provincial institution has already done the job and anticipated the regional decisions. In 2020, we carried out a profound reform to strengthen the funding of rescue zones with a results obligation. The Provinces had full autonomy to determine the means to achieve those results. The liberals of the Namur majority turned this constraint into an opportunity to redefine the priority missions of the Province of Namur and to abandon activities that were redundant with others or less relevant. 13 services were ended. “We carried out this reform through a process of consultation with the trade unions,” recalls Jean-Marc Van Espen. “It was carried out without a single redundancy, in a climate of social peace, but also without taking a single euro from the pockets of the citizens of Namur.”
And the goal has been achieved, since today the Province of Namur funds the operation of the 3 rescue zones in its territory to the tune of 20 million euros.
Through these choices, the liberals of Namur have confirmed that citizens' safety is a priority.
“And tomorrow, you might ask?” Jean-Marc says to us.
“Tomorrow is 13 October. Elections await us. It's true that this is likely to be the last provincial election. But that doesn't mean we'll campaign half-heartedly! We won't act as gravediggers but as managers, to use our President's words, to keep transforming the provincial tool in order to further improve the quality of services provided to citizens.Tomorrow's Province will no longer be today's.
Strengthened by a first reform experience for the Province of Namur, we feel ready to guide this change under the best possible conditions. And because alone we go faster but together we go further, Namur's provincial liberals intend to work with all levels of government to move towards greater supra-municipal cooperation.Supra-what? Jean-Marc gives us his definition of supra-municipal cooperation: “This somewhat odd term means that the provincial institution will have to support the municipalities even more, especially smaller or rural ones, so as to better provide services they cannot deliver on their own.”
For example: Ø Managing waterways to prevent flooding; Ø Tackling anti-social behaviour; Ø Encouraging soft mobility, for instance via the “node network”; Ø And of course ensuring safety by enabling the fastest and most efficient fire brigade interventions. The provincial institution will stand alongside the municipalities to drive change and build, together with them, our societal project. “The Forum of Municipalities, the supra-municipal body made up of the 38 mayors, is already in place in the Province of Namur,” says the current Deputy-President. “We will strengthen its role.” He adds: “While we already have the consultation body with the municipalities, we are also calling on the other levels of government, the Federal State, the Region and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, to increase consultation and coordination with them as well. We must be the strong link in the chain, the gear that coordinates agreed strategies on the ground.” Concretely, this means for example:- continuing to make our territory a welcoming land for businesses through our economic tool, the BEP (the Economic Bureau of the Province of Namur)
- Consulting with representatives of the sectors concerned on support policies for farmers and self-employed workers
- Being a driving force behind training for security professions (firefighters, police officers, paramedics, security guards) in close coordination with the federal government for safe territories
- better coordinating with prevention bodies, including AVIQ, for preventive public health policies and a living environment conducive to everyone's fulfilment
- working with the 38 Namur municipalities to make our province Europe's cultural lung by 2030.
Today there is much talk of agility, resilience, volatility and uncertainty.
Indeed, the Provinces are once again on shaky ground, but despite their reputation as a rigid institution, they have shown the most agility and resilience in terms of evolution in recent years. A new challenge lies ahead. The liberal majorities will rise to this challenge once again. Jean-Marc Van Espen is already thinking about it: “The future of the provincial institution is to be a truly intermediate local power. We will strengthen our role as an actor and driving force for the territory, in genuine consultation with all levels of government.”Jean-Marc Van Espen