Whereas government funding programs such as the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program and Building BC Community Housing Fund have been established to realize government priorities; And whereas local governments expend considerable effort and expense to prepare applications for government funding programs: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM work with the provincial government to review the granting process to improve efficiency and ensure its funding programs are adequately resourced so that shared objectives can be realized.
Ministry of Municipal Affairs Programs such as the federal-provincial Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program ICIP are application based and designed for capital projects that support community priorities and align with federal and provincial priorities. Program intakes, under the ICIP, were competitive with high oversubscription of funding requests. The province continues to advocate the federal government for additional bilateral funding programs to meet the scale and range of needs of local governments. In these merit-based programs, applications are assessed with consistent process to ensure that those applications that best meet program objectives and demonstrate effective risk management are selected for funding. Applications must also demonstrate that they will meet federal requirements for bilateral funding programs. The Ministry recognizes that it is challenging to invest financial resources into the feasibility work that supports the project details required as part of a funding applications; however, this work is required to advance a capital project. The Ministrys Infrastructure Planning Grant Program can assist in completing engineering or related planning work for a project. The province recognizes the importance of ongoing collaboration with local governments and the Union of BC Municipalities UBCM. In addition to feedback and input about infrastructure funding programs, the province has a Memorandum of Understanding with UBCM to collectively review the local government finance system.