WHEREAS Canada and British Columbia have reduced the number of infrastructure funding programs available to local governments and those that are available are limited to specific types of infrastructure or specific government objectives; AND WHEREAS small rural and urban local governments are struggling to deal with huge infrastructure deficits, while revenues from business, the resource sector, industry and other avenues continue to decline; AND WHEREAS yearly property tax increases to cover operational costs are not sustainable, and hurt the ability of those local governments to attract and retain business and industry investment to their communities; AND WHEREAS small rural and urban local governments do not have the necessary funds to acquire federalprovincial grants which require them to produce matching funds, and are therefore unable to take advantage of these infrastructure grants: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UBCM petition the provincial and federal governments to revise their grant formula so that they do not require matching funding, or come up with a new system that allows cash strapped local governments to address their critical infrastructure needs without having to borrow money to do so.
Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development The Ministry recognizes the challenges faced by small rural and urban local governments. This recognition led to the development of programs such as Towns for Tomorrow and the Community Recreation Program. In both of these programs, the provincial contribution was up to 80 percent, resulting in a local government contribution of 20 percent. In addition, the Gas Tax Fund provides funding opportunities of 100 percent in the Community Works Fund as well as the pooled funding programs the General Strategic Priorities Fund and the Innovation Fund. As the Ministry develops, or participates in the development of, capital funding programs, the Ministry is always aware of the challenges of small local governments, and as such, analyses the cost-share formula in the development of all programs. With a finite amount of funding available, the Ministry tries to balance not only the financial challenges faced by small local governments, but also the need to maximize the benefits of these capital programs to as many local governments as possible. While the Ministry are not committed to any revision with respect to cost sharing for programs for which the Ministry is responsible, the Ministry is aware of the issues and is committed to developing programs that are fair, practical and meet the various challenges faced by local governments.