Moncton is once again searching for a vision.

It’s not clear whether the search is for an architectural vision, a development vision or an economic vision. In my view, the vision should be all encompassing and start with the amalgamation of Moncton, Riverview and Dieppe.

With amalgamation, we could focus on the river as the visual centrepiece for development. That could lead to an opening of the causeway, new parkland development and perhaps a third bridge from Champlain Mall to East Gunningsville, in the Town of Riverview.

On the commercial side we’re already looking at new downtown hotels and perhaps a convention-centre. There’s talk of a football stadium. Indeed one may have been announced by the time you read this column. Maybe we should bring the Coliseum downtown. It could serve as a hockey arena, entertainment centre and a trade show facility much like the Metro Centre in downtown Halifax.

We have a beautiful train station hidden behind a tired old office building and a grungy parking lot. Maybe we should loop Main Street from Vaughn Harvey in behind Highfield Square to make the station more visible.

Maybe we should be connecting the rail line to the airport and running commuter rail cars between Salisbury, downtown Moncton, the airport and Shediac. Maybe we should move the bus terminal to the airport and bring people downtown by rail. That would make a terrific environmental statement.

A vision for Moncton should have an education and research component. Maybe we should create an education cluster with community colleges, universities and innovative research centres. Maybe we should have a school of medicine at the University of Moncton to complement its law school, business school and a school of science and engineering. Maybe we should merge the two hospitals into one super ‘bilingual’ teaching and research hospital.

A vision should celebrate the heritage of Moncton. Building codes and zoning laws should require adherence to building design themes that recognize our history but push us towards the future. At the same time we should rid the City of some of its ugly 1970s ‘box’ buildings.

Moncton needs to see itself as the business, economic and cultural centre of Atlantic Canada. We have the location but we need to upgrade the quality of our main streets and our connecting highways. We need to add bridges and overpasses at key intersections.

We need to bring architectural character to social and commercial structures like the Dieppe farmers’ market. It’s clearly a happening place but the building has no character (see the Saint John Market or Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market or Vancouver’s Granville Market). Vendors and the crush of people give life to the market. That life should be used to create a reflective architectural jewel.

All great cities have a centre and a visual focal point. Most are positioned on a great waterway, a river or a port. We have a near-dead river at our doorstep. That has to be resuscitated. We need a port. We have to link with Shediac.

We have a Main Street but it’s more like a strip mall than a city centre. We have two major retail destinations but neither throws off the visual vibrations that lift a retail complex above the sum of its parts.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re great business generators but they don’t meet the test of visionary development. We have an excellent Coliseum facility but it’s badly sited and contributes little to the commercial prosperity of downtown Moncton.

Greater Moncton has all the elements of a great city – people, culture, transportation, accessibility, a vibrant business community, central location, golf courses, recreation centres, nearby beaches, universities, hospitals, theatre, restaurants, pubs and an international airport but it has no coherent downtown. It has no cohesion as a community. The irony is that few Canadian cities have the potential of Moncton to link economic opportunity with lifestyle.

In my vision, the city should be visually defined by three things: the river front, wide boulevards and architecture. Think of it as a three sided Roman coliseum where all eyes look down on the gladiators. Development would conform to an architectural theme that would create a unique visual impression of Moncton perhaps in the image of a tiny corner of France and the UK.

Four lane boulevards would follow both sides of the river. On the north side of the boulevard, overlooking the river could be your business centre, your coliseum, your hotels and convention-centres. A second boulevard might wind in behind Highfield Square from Vaughn Harvey, then north through the bus terminal to Queen Street and east to Lewis Street before connecting with the waterfront boulevard and traveling east and south through Dieppe.

Main Street, as we know it between Lutz and Botsford should become a pedestrian walkway marked by trees, grass, cobblestone-walks, restaurants and shops. Highfield Square and adjacent buildings and parking lots should become parkland to frame the train station, perhaps with some medium rise commercial development at the eastern end of the parking lot.

A super-hospital could be built on the site of Champlain Mall and the Mall could be moved to the Dieppe Industrial Park. The Community College, Atlantic Baptist University and Mount Allison University would be sited within walking distance of the University of Moncton to create a centre of human excellence that would move Moncton (and New Brunswick) to the forefront of science and innovation.

In a perfect world, we could do all of this and more.

It would only take public will and money – the all illusive buck that makes the world turn.

Imagine what could be done with just five percent of the Iraqi reconstruction budget. Pie-in-the-sky yes but that’s how “visions” get started. Let’s get on with ours.

Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and business owner operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic.