Reaping benefits of the Provincial Growth Fund

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Tairawhiti can expect the Provincial Growth Fund’s investment of $299 million to produce about 1500 new full-time jobs and a $176m increase in gross domestic product.

A report by economic consultants BERL — in which it said those figures could be achieved by the time the funding had been spent — has been presented to the Sustainable Tairawhiti committee which consists of all Gisborne district councillors and Mayor Rehette Stoltz.

Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann said the report on the council's performance up to June 30, 2021 demonstrated the collective impact of central government working with local government, the community and iwi who had determined priorities.

A district where affordability was an issue could achieve growth, she said.

Councillor Bill Burdett said the region had performed better than many had thought. Forestry and the community had benefitted and millions of dollars had been invested in upgrading marae across Tairawhiti.

He thanked then Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones for “coming and dropping this among us”.

Cr Larry Foster said Tairawhiti had been at the bottom of the economic ladder for so long.

“All of a sudden there’s government investment of $299 million — not all of it’s been spent — and we’ve “become one of the highest performing regions in the country”.

Business confidence had improved, there were more people around and there was more positivity.

“We’re just charging.”

Ms Thatcher Swann said most of the unspent PGF investment was Waka Kotahi/NZ Transport Agency funding.

Council director of lifelines David Wilson said Waka Kotahi had unspent funding of $48m for state highways and some other funding while the council had $10m of funding for East Cape Road.

The council has since clarified that the council completed about $5 million of this PGF work in the 2021/2022 financial year and $5m was being transferred to the next financial year.

"The full $10 million will be spent within the deliverable timeframes for PGF resilience work."

Cr Josh Wharehinga said the PGF report showed the council and the region could perform with investment. But the PGF was over and inflation was high in today’s world of greater uncertainty.

The BERL report concluded that the PGF had directly contributed to accelerated growth in Tairawhiti and had a range of positive economic and social impacts on the region.

The effects of the PGF would be significant but would not, by itself, change the region’s economy on a lasting basis without a concerted effort to ensure benefits were sustained.

Council planning and performance manager Tim Breese said BERL noted the benefit of the PGF “on the resilience of our transport network but does not consider the ongoing costs to maintain the existing level of service of the network”.

“The increasing impact of climate change on the network, as evidenced by the number of recent flooding events, will mean the council will need to work closely with central government to ensure adequate funding is available to continue to deliver a resilient network.”