The mayors of the Waitaki, Timaru, Waimate and Mackenzie districts are "chopping down parochialism''.
A "mini'' Canterbury Mayoral Forum was held in Oamaru on Thursday, when Timaru Mayor Damon Odey, Waimate Mayor Craig Rowley, Mackenzie Mayor Claire Barlow and Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher met to discuss opportunities and issues they are all facing.
Such a meeting is held every three months.
Under discussion were freedom camping, skills shortages, how to benefit from Air New Zealand's introduction of 50-seat planes on its Timaru-Wellington route and the Canterbury water management strategy.
In the Waitaki and Mackenzie districts, in particular, more freedom campers, coupled with a lack of facilities, were creating significant problems.
The Mackenzie District Council was reviewing its freedom camping strategy and Waitaki would probably base its own on that.
"We share a catchment and we share a lot of the same issues around lake edges and freedom camping,'' Mrs Barlow said.
Mr Kircher said having consistency in freedom camping bylaws across the districts would be beneficial.
"Campers don't necessarily know when they cross a district boundary, but if the rules are the same then it makes it easier for them.''
The mayors also discussed how each district could benefit from Air New Zealand's introduction of 50-seat planes on its Timaru-Wellington route.
The airline is scheduled to introduce 50-seat Bombardier Q300 aircraft from April to replace its 19-seat Beechcraft planes and Mr Kircher said all mayors had a vested interest in making sure the service worked.
It provided a "key opportunity'' for the Waitaki and Mackenzie districts to target the lower North Island and promote the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail and weekend trips.
Rather than having the districts competing with each other, the mayors wanted to promote the assets of all districts.
"We're chopping down parochialism,'' Mr Odey said.
A promotion of the new Air New Zealand service would be launched once the service was in operation and it would probably be co-ordinated for all the districts through one tourism body, Mr Kircher said.
It was also agreed all the districts had a vested interest in attracting and retaining skilled workers, and the mayors discussed how industry leaders across the districts could work together to promote this, including "having someone to co-ordinate that across the regions'', Mr Odey said.
The districts should work together "like one big factory'', he said.
"We talked, in general, about shared services and what we wanted to achieve with shared services, refining things,'' he said.
There were also some projects that benefited all districts.
Alps 2 Ocean spanned the Waitaki and Mackenzie districts, and the Oceania Dairy Ltd project in the Waimate district had attracted workers from Waitaki and Timaru.
"We should work together across the district. There are a lot of things we can work together on,'' Mr Kircher said.
