It's not exactly one for all, but it is a bit of all for one.

The mayor of Saint John is calling on neighbouring communities to work together as one region.

Don Darling, the mayor of Saint John, believes the cash-strapped city can't afford to do anything else.

That’s why he’s looking for allies among his neighbours.

“We need regionalization,” Darling said. “We need to come together as a greater region of Saint John.”

Darling delivered his state-of-the-city address to a packed room at the Delta, stressing the need for more cooperation with the outlying areas.

Over the last decade, he says the city has spent $27 million in five regional facilities including Harbour Station and the Canada Games Aquatic Centre, while other nearby towns have contributed $8.3 million.

“What it removes is the elephant in the room,” Darling said. “It addresses what I believe is the root cause … that fair and equitable sharing of cost.”

It’s an approach that appears to be resonating.

“Saint John is surrounded by four or five communities that kind of use Saint John as the hub, and obviously when the hub of that wheel is hurting like Saint John is, I think it's incumbent on all of the regions to find a way to work together,” said Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long.

David Duplisea, the CEO of the Saint John Region Chamber of Commerce, said: “We can't do Band-Aid approaches any longer. Band-Aid approaches are really what have gotten us and other municipalities into this situation so we need to overall look at municipal reform.”

Former premier Brian Gallant tried to fix the fiscal situation by offering the city millions.

Darling’s speech comes just a few weeks after the release of a report by auditor general Kim McPherson, who said that two laws were broken when the previous Gallant government bailed out Saint John using taxpayer money.

That deal was worth up to $22.8 million over three years and there is talk of an investigation into the matter.

“If there's going to be an investigation, I’d be glad to represent the city, not protect but defend if you will, the reputation of this great city because we did nothing wrong,” Darling said.

Meanwhile, Darling has issued a call to members of the chamber of commerce to champion municipal reform.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Lyall.