WHEREAS a significant number of local governments have signed the British Columbia Climate Action Charter and support the Province of British Columbia in a desire to address the negative impacts of climate change; AND WHEREAS the Province of British Columbia provides financial assistance to local governments to implement initiatives to address the negative impacts of climate change primarily through grant programs: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Province of British Columbia be requested to amend grant programs to: standardize the application process; expedite approval times; reduce paperwork; reduce staff time; and provide longer lead times; so that municipalities can better plan their finances around future opportunities, and minimize staff resources to the grant application process in favour of maximizing resources on the related projects.
Ministry of Community Development The Ministry of Community Development recognized that local governments face capacity and resource challenges, when dealing with infrastructure grant applications. The Province, with its federal partners continue to work to improve administration and implementation of the funding programs, aware that resources within local governments are limited and that funding program timelines, such as intake period and approvalannouncement delays have significant impact on project implementation and ultimately, meeting provincial priorities and program goalsobjectives. There are key initiatives in place which are designed to improve administration of funding programs, such as developing a central database, which will serve as a single point of information input applications, storage and management for Ministry funding programs. In addition, work has been done to limit the paper requirements for programs. Further, program staff maintains expert knowledge of all infrastructure programs they manage, and can act as an additional resource by providing support, guidance and advice. All local governments are encouraged to utilize this resource to support their project development and implementation. Planning Grants are also available to assist municipalities to better plan their finances around future projects. It is important to recognize that both the federal and provincial governments are mandated to deliver these programs, meeting identified goals and objectives. There are mandatory information and minimum data requirements that must be met in order to evaluate applications and allocate the funding in a fair and equitable fashion. Applications are designed to thoroughly assess potential projects with limited resources and determine the extent to which the applications meet program goals and provincial strategies, and the Province works to improve the tools available to Local Governments to assist in the application process. It is understood that a balance must be achieved, meeting the challenges faced by local governments, both with respect to applying to funding programs and project implementation, and meeting the federal and provincial program requirements.