Collective agenda gathers B.C. mayors in Penticton

B.C. mayors are looking for a new deal with the provincial and federal governments that will help reduce residential tax increases.

During closed door discussions in Penticton Thursday, 86 of B.C.’s 189 mayors shared stories of government downloading that are stripping community coffers.

Everything from fish habitat protection to Agriculture Land Reserve (ALR) governance to fire departments answering provincially funded medical calls was on the table at the inaugural B.C. Mayors’ Caucus meeting.

“B.C.’s municipalities need a new deal with the provincial and federal governments to provide the services our constituents expect,” said Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts in a press release prior to the in-camera meetings in Penticton. “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.”

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Penticton Mayor Dan Ashton says municipalities don’t want to burden property owners with continuous tax hikes.

“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,” said Ashton. “The analogy of people being able to support more services through taxation is not one that any mayor in this province wants to accept.”

The administration of the ALR regulations is a big issue for Kelowna Mayor Walter Gray.

“They can create new requirements, new programs, new opportunities for agriculture, but then all of the regulation, supervision and enforcement that comes along with it is downloaded to local government,” said Gray. “You just add it all up and pretty soon local government says ‘Whoa.’ It’s time to talk with this federal and provincial, mainly, governments, and let’s have a real look at all this.”

A press release from the Mayors’ Caucus includes several more of what they call ‘downloaded’ services:

Local governments…
– are now providing land as a pre-condition for the Province to build social housing projects;
– are forced to address many settlement and integration issues for refugees (e.g. public safety intervention, domestic problems, gang-related problems, etc.);
– are responsible for ensuring residential tenancies are properly maintained by landlords;
– pay more for policing as new federal laws require more work to gather more evidence to support charge approval;
– are managing flood hazard areas and related liability;
– have to deal with the closure of psychiatric hospitals by the Province which has placed many vulnerable people on the street;
– pay local fire departments to respond to medical calls, displacing the need for added resources by the provincially funded ambulance service;

The Mayors’ Caucus continues meetings until Saturday afternoon in Penticton.