At this time of year, resolutions from all five area associations and individual members are coming to UBCM in a hailstorm. As we prepare for these resolutions to be considered at the 2024 UBCM Convention, we wanted to take an opportunity to talk about what happens before and after the Convention, in particular how UBCM deals with the Province’s responses to resolutions endorsed by the membership.
Each year, UBCM members submit an average of 205 resolutions to be considered by voting delegates at our annual meeting. Resolutions are truly a grass-roots process, whereby any member of UBCM may submit a resolution on a topic of broad interest for UBCM’s members for consideration at Convention. Debates from the floor and voting on these resolutions are the meat and potatoes of our annual gathering, with which most of you are very familiar.
As any member who has submitted a resolution knows, the Province’s response is highly anticipated.
UBCM’s Resolutions Process
All endorsed resolutions that are provincially-relevant are conveyed to the Province, to be shared with the appropriate ministries. Those ministries prepare responses to indicate whether they will work towards the request and how they will do so. The Province may also indicate that the issue is already being worked or that it will be considered at a later date. Responses are packaged and shared with UBCM in the spring.
UBCM staff share the responses with the sponsor of each resolution. They also publish the complete package for anyone to review. The responses are also added to our searchable resolutions database.
Further, UBCM evaluates the responses to measure progress. Are the requests being made by the resolutions being acted upon? Do we see legislative changes, regulatory changes, policy changes, additional funding, changes in authority etc., that are often sought by resolutions? UBCM’s annual report includes a table showing a summary of legislative changes and funding provided that can be tied back to a request made in a resolution.
Sometimes the action to fulfil the request of a resolution can take years, and sometimes the request is never fully acted upon. Reviewing the efforts of the provincial and federal governments over time demonstrate that the resolutions being brought forward do help move the needle, and often lead to positive outcomes for local governments and their citizens.
Resolutions that have led to substantive, province-wide changes are numerous. To name just a few, these include: changes to campaign finance for local election to ban corporate and union donations (2017); legislated tools to support responsible conduct (2021); changes to the Building Code to improve energy efficiency in new buildings (2021); improving funding for libraries (2021); and regulating the public consumption of illicit drugs (2023).
Each Annual Report includes a section that reviews the progress being made on priority policy issues, which are helped along in no small part by your resolutions. Look for this year’s Annual Report, to be released in August, for more examples of resolutions bringing about important changes that impact local governments.
Please feel free to reach out to us to discuss resolutions. We appreciate the opportunity to talk with members about resolutions that bring about so much member engagement and participation.
— Councillor Trish Mandewo, UBCM President
— Councillor Pete Fry, Resolutions Committee Chair
A word on how to submit resolutions:
We encourage members to submit their resolutions to their local Area Association for consideration at their spring conventions. Resolutions endorsed at the Area Association level are sent to UBCM and will be included in the Resolutions Book, with a note that they have been endorsed at the Area Association. Members can also submit resolutions directly to UBCM by June 15. Late resolutions, which are those submitted after June 15, will only be admitted for debate if they address a new issue that was not known as of the June 15 deadline.
We also encourage members to review the guidelines for writing a resolution. A well-written resolution is succinct and easy to understand, no matter the topic. We recommend two whereas clauses to provide background and context, followed by an enactment clause, which is addressed to the appropriate order of government or other organization, that states the request being made by the resolution.