WHEREAS provincial legislation and regulations require local governments to operate their water and sewer systems in a professional manner for the safety of the public; AND WHEREAS the costs to train local government staff and improvement districts to meet these new requirements is significant: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities petition the Province to add significant funding under the Water and Sewer Planning Grant program or create a new program to fund the training costs of water and sewer operators.
Ministry of Community Services Government is aware of the issue surrounding the new legislative requirement to have certified operators for all drinking water systems that fall under the authority of the Drinking Water Protection Act and the long-standing legislative requirement to have certified operators for all wastewater systems that fall under the authority of the Environmental Management Act. Historically, government grant programs have excluded funding for soft operational and maintenance costs. The Local Government Grants Act limits the purpose of conditional grants for infrastructure to reviewing, studying, planning, or constructing water supply and distribution facilities, sewage collection and disposal facilities, major municipal highways or other infrastructure. Grants to cover ongoing operating costs are not authorized by the legislation. All operating costs, including operator training and certification, should be dealt with as a component of the full or true cost of delivering water and sewer services. In governments view, subsidizing these costs simply hides the true cost from the consumers who benefit from the service and is not a prudent or sustainable practice. Therefore, government recommends that a full-cost recovery pricing structure is the most effective and equitable way to address this issue.