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Municipal politicians at the Union of British Columbia
Municipalities(UBCM) took strong stands on many issues at their
convention this year, including ambulance and child care funding,
infrastructure funding, water, industrial water licences and TILMA.
- Ambulance and Child Care Funding
Both resolutions
demanding the provincial government restore sufficient funding to
ambulance and child care services passed without amendment. Ambulance
service response time has dropped to levels below those in the 1980s
with 50 per cent more calls in the last decade alone and an aging
population. The B.C. government’s own Progress Board and the B.C.
government’s own Finance Committee have both called for increased
childcare funding, particularly with cuts from the federal government.
The B.C. government has actually cut childcare funding after the
federal government did. - Infrastructure Funding
Canada’s infrastructure
funding deficit is in the tens of billions of dollars. The UBCM passed
many resolutions calling for greater federal and provincial support for
infrastructure projects. The federal government today announced $49.1
million for 199 new buses for TransLink (only half are new as the rest
replace aging buses). Within that announcement, however, Public Safety
Minister Stockwell Day reiterated the value of public-private
partnerships, which can have extraordinary cost overruns, secret
contracts, and onerous pressure on local governments to even prepare
and manage privatization bids. Minister Day said privatization is
necessary and “can be successful.” Even privatized infrastructure
projects that have not had massive cost overruns, still remove public
accountability and autonomy. - Water
Tofino’s Resolution B27, the Water Declaration,
was a strong resolution designed to entrench water as a common good and
a public resource. While most delegates spoke strongly in favour of it,
one person stood to propose an amendment to remove water delivery from
the resolution. The amendment was soundly defeated and the Water
Declaration passed. - Industrial Water Licences
Industries given permission
by the provincial government to generate hydro electricity for
industrial purposes have been given the freedom by the B.C. Supreme
Court to use that electricity for whatever they wish. They could wind
down industrial activities, lay off workers, harm local economies and
take part in the newly deregulating continental power market featuring
blackout, billions in price gouging and Enron. The UBCM has voted in
favour of asking the province to force industries to use their
electrical power for industrial purposes. - TILMA
Resolution A3, the Trade, Investment and Labour
Mobility Agreement (TILMA), passed in overwhelming fashion. Economic
Development Minister Colin Hansen did a poor job of addressing local
governments’ concerns at a 3-hour pre-convention workshop on Monday.
TILMA allows a government-picked trade dispute panel that operates
outside our court system to determine whether a local government’s
bylaw or regulation violates TILMA, with a penalty of up to $5 million
for each infraction. The Agreement states that only the province would
have to pay the fine, however for months Minister Hansen has not stated
that the provincial government will not come after local governments to
recoup that cost.
On Monday he extended that ambiguity by not
confirming that the province will not punish local governments. Also,
on direct questioning he further could not guarantee that local
governments’ authority will not be reduced by TILMA. Like the Water
Declaration resolution, when the convention debated the TILMA
resolution, someone tried to amend it by limiting the options the UBCM
could use in negotiating local governments’ relationship to TILMA. That
amendment was also soundly defeated and the strong UBCM motion against
TILMA passed.