By Cheryl Jahn

New fiscal picture coming?

Feb 2, 2022 | 3:14 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The City of Prince George has 810 kilometres of underground water pipes, 699 kilometres of sanitary sewer pipes and 427 kilometres of stormwater pipes. The chances of there being complications are pretty good. Climate change brings us ever-evolving challenges and the bills associated with it are huge.

“One of the things that keep mayors, councillors and area directors up at night is the increasing costs that local governments face, right?,” says Laury-Anne Roodenburg, President of the Union of BC Municipalities. “So it’s not just about downloading. We talk about climate change, the housing crisis and complex issues that are facing our police right now. All of these are adding costs to providing services to our communities.”

Inflation in Canada currently sits at four percent, but there are some areas where inflationary costs are even higher. It drives up the cost of things like major projects. But, revenues for local governments are finite.

“Property taxes don’t change dramatically over time,” says Councillor Garth Frizzell. “But they also don’t increase with the economy and they don’t decrease with the economy. It means if we have swings, it’s very difficult on local government.”

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He says municipalities receive only 10 cents out of every taxpayer dollar. The rest goes to the federal and provincial governments.

To that end, the Union of BC Municipalities and the Province have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which sets out 20 recommendations, such as “… to develop a fairer, more responsive property tax system,” “… to improve the effectiveness of the development permit process,” “…to direct a percentage of the carbon tax to local governments” and ” to create new taxation powers to be granted to local governments.”

For Roodenburg, none of the 20 recommendations is set out in any priority order.

“They are not based on a priority list. They are all of equal value. And I know, looking at the MOU, they’ll be looking at all of them. It would be great to get some quick-hit wins but those twenty wins are all on the table.”

And the project is long-term, with a review set to take place in three years.

by Cheryl Jahn

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