Just days ahead of its annual general meeting, the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) is calling on all parties in the Oct. 19 election to consider growing financial pressures faced by local governments as the province downloads costs to property taxpayers.
The umbrella lobbying organization for the province’s municipalities laid out the issues in a report, Stretched to the Limit. The document highlights the cost pressures local governments face due to gaps in provincial services, and new housing mandates.
It also delves into new responsibilities for emergency management during B.C.’s intensifying flood and fire seasons.
The document said the current reality for municipalities is that there's an over-reliance on an old property tax system that never contemplated funding service delivery and infrastructure gaps linked to provincial mandates — such as building new community infrastructure to support legislated housing growth; funding pre-hospital care for those with mental health and addiction issues; and subsidizing affordable housing units to tackle housing affordability and homelessness.
"These new cost pressures are pushing local governments to implement significant property tax increases, rely on unpredictable grants, or divert funds from core local responsibilities," the document said.
“Local governments are dealing with a trifecta of cost pressures that are overwhelming the capacity of the property tax,” said UBCM president Trish Mandewo, a Coquitlam city councillor. “Gaps in provincial services to address homelessness have created significant costs for local government. New mandates to increase housing supply require more infrastructure investment to support growth.”
And, she said, “recent legislation is requiring more of our resources to manage emergencies during extreme weather events.”
What the UBCM would like to see from the parties is policy proposals on increases to financial transfers to local governments to handle downloaded costs.
Specifically, the UBCM wants:
• $650 million in additional infrastructure funding annually;
• an annual percentage from the provincial property transfer tax to support local efforts in subsidizing affordable housing supply and homelessness responses; and,
• a transfer of an annual percentage of the growth in the provincial carbon tax to support local climate action projects and emergency management planning and responses.
"While local governments are doing significantly more, they are doing so with fiscal tools that have been in place for generations. Local governments are being asked to solve 21st-century problems with 20th-century revenue tools," the document said.
The UBCM said it is meeting with leadership from the three main parties — the NDP, the B.C. Conservatives and the Greens — to discuss those priorities.
It said it will be monitoring each of the party's commitments.
