2021

Whereas Canada has exclusive jurisdiction over medical cannabis production sites, and such sites may be located irrespective of local government regulations and operated in a manner which causes deleterious impacts to communities; And whereas a fundamental purpose of local governments is to foster the economic, social and environmental well-being of communities, and by sharing information and coordinating services with Canada in relation to medical cannabis production sites, local governments will be better able to satisfy this purpose: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM request that Cana

Whereas the provision of police services places a significant financial burden on local government; And whereas the Civil Forfeiture Crime Prevention and Crime Remediation Grant Program fund community crime reduction and crime prevention activities, but does not address local government policing costs, including expenditures related to investigations and police work that results in seizures of proceeds of crime: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM respectfully request that the Province share seizures of proceeds of crime with local governments to help address protective services costs.

Whereas Provincial Crown Counsel prosecutes offences and appeals in British Columbia that arise under Canadas Criminal Code and British Columbia statutes; And whereas collaborative approaches that address root causes of crime, such as mental illness and addictions, create effective and targeted responses by providing offenders with supports, services and ties to their community to promote rehabilitation and a crime-free lifestyle; And whereas the provincial government, through the implementation of coordinated initiatives such as communityintegrated court and addiction treatment centres,

Whereas the RCMP are tasked to preserve and organize information and evidence collected in the course of their investigation, in consideration of the Crowns obligation to disclose and in recognition of the benefits of early disclosure; And whereas in accordance with the Crown Counsel Act, Crown Counsel is required to examine all relevant information and documents and, following the examination, to approve for prosecution any offence or offences that he or she considers appropriate; And whereas the demand for, and backlog of, biological and other forensic service at the National Forensic L

Whereas the Fire Underwriters has deemed that all fire apparatus from all municipal and regional district Fire Departments in British Columbia be in service for 20 years, providing annual testing and inspections are performed; And whereas there are local governments that utilize their fire apparatus much less frequently than those of other local governments, and small geographically sized communities do not put nearly as much distance on their fire apparatus as do larger geographically sized communities, and all fire apparatus are annually tested and maintained to the highest standard of o

Whereas the Fire Underwriters Survey requires that in order to receive credit for fire insurance grading purposes, all first line fire apparatus in small and rural communities should be replaced after 20 years of service and may only be extended up to 25 years when fire apparatus is tested and proven to be in excellent mechanical condition; And whereas small and rural local governments often are financially challenged to replace high cost and minimally used fire apparatus on a 20-25-year rotational basis: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM petition the Province to advocate to the Insuranc

Whereas local government is only able to collect a 911 call answer levy from landline subscriptions; And whereas landline subscriptions across the province are decreasing; And whereas local governments in the province do not have the ability to collect a 911 call answer levy from cellular telecommunications platforms: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM petition the Province of BC to enact a provincial 911 levy to include the collection of monthly charges from mobile devices, and provide these funds directly to local government 911 service providers.

Whereas current funding programs for flood mitigation requires 13 of project funding from local government as well as requiring that the local government assume ownership of the works for a period of 10 years, in some cases resulting in an unrealistic burden on affected taxpayers; And whereas the financial inability of residents to meet the requirements of the current funding program often precludes a planned proactive approach to known flood issues to minimize environmental impacts associated with mitigative works and instead results in a reactive approach when an imminent threat occurs,

Whereaslocal governments in BC are orders of government that are the first to respond to questionsconcerns, resulting from emergencies, whether natural disasters like wildfires and floods or pandemics like the current COVID-19 pandemic; And whereas local governments require accurate and timely information that can be shared with their residents, both for safety purposes and to reduce anxiety of their residents; And whereas the communication from local health authorities and the provincial government to local governments, although improving, has only reached the minimum acceptable standard

Whereas climate change induced extreme weather events regularly overwhelm local government infrastructure; And whereas this creates liability risks, even in the absence of negligence on the part of BC local governments because of the wording of Section 744 of the Local Government Act, whose protection is qualified by the inclusion of the phrase breakdown or malfunction, while every other Canadian province and territory provides local governments with similar protection without this qualification; And whereas the Municipal Insurance Association of British Columbia has deemed this is the mo