SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- With five months left as mayor of Saint John, N.B., Don Darling has resigned his seat on the city's police commission -- a decision he says was made so he could speak more freely about police reform during the rest of his time in office.

"I thought it was really important in my last five months as the mayor to be unfiltered and to be able to speak very openly and honestly about the change the city needs and the type of change I believe the police force needs in Saint John," Darling said.

That change, darling believes, includes a more open and transparent Saint John Police Force -- recognizing systemic racism in New Brunswick, modernizing the Police Act, and redefining core policing.

"We have our police officers today do work that was never contemplated for them to be doing, so I think that needs to be challenged," Darling said.

The mayor is also calling for a better relationshp between the union and management -- calling it "broken."

That's a description the president of the Saint John Police Association, Duane Squires, disagrees with.

"Especially through COVID, and our other response that we've had to the citizens of Saint John, they've been very up front with us," Squires said. "We actually have a very good working relationship between the union and management."

But Squires says he does agree that reform is needed, especially when it comes to responding to calls that are not necessarily police matters.

This comes as the Saint John Police Commission announces negotiations with the union will start up again later this month.

On Tuesday, the province reintroduced amendments to the binding arbitration process for police and fire, which government says will help address, among other things, concerns over wage increases.