Last
week in Penticton, mayors from 86 communities across British Columbia met to
discuss issues they have been facing, and of concern, as more and more areas
previously looked after (and funded) by Federal and Provincial governments, get
downloaded on to them.
In a story
from the Okanagan’s CHBC TV News, Dianne Watts, Mayor of Surrey said:
“B.C.’s municipalities need a new deal with the provincial
and federal governments to provide the services our constituents expect. Municipalities
provide the vast majority of the service in areas such as infrastructure while
being given only 8 cents out of every tax dollar to do it.”
While
Penticton Mayor Dan Ashton said:
“We all realize there is only one taxpayer and those
taxpayers are challenged these days and that challenge is one that we as mayors
and council have to address. The analogy of people being able to
support more services through taxation is not one that any mayor in this
province wants to accept.”
A
news release from the Mayors, following their meeting in Penticton, also brought up
a number of additional areas of concerns, where local governments are:
- now providing land as a precondition for the Province to build social housing projects
- now responsible for ensuring residential tenancies are properly maintained by landlords
- paying more for policing as new federal laws require more work to gather more evidence to support charges being approved
- managing flood hazard areas and related liability
- dealing with the aftermath of psychiatric hospitals closures by the Province which has placed many vulnerable people on the street
- paying local fire departments to respond to medical calls, displacing the need for added resources by the provincially funded ambulance service
