Two Parksville city councillors are back from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference with the message that the municipal funding model could use an update.
Councillors Joel Grenz and Sean Wood were among approximately 2,000 people who converged on Ottawa for an opportunity to meet with their municipal counterparts, as well as with MLAs and MPs from around the country.
The meetings provided a chance to connect with the others on issues, such as how to fund all the infrastructure that will be needed to support the Province of B.C.'s increased housing targets.
"Local government across the entire country are responsible for roughly 60 per cent of the infrastructure in Canada," Wood said. "And then of every dollar of taxes that are collected across all of the orders of government, local governments really only collect about 10 cents of that dollar."
Wood said that math is the reason why FCM's message to the federal government is that there needs to be an improved municipal growth framework to fund things like water systems, roads and parks.
"The reception is definitely good and I think they get what we're talking about," Grenz said. "The question will be whether this is going to be a priority for this government, but we want to make sure that it's front and centre."
He added the conference provided he and Wood with opportunities to speak directly with MPs from neighbouring regions about regional priorities such as access to healthcare.
"One of the huge priorities in our region is upgrades to the hospital, and so a new patient tower, catheterization lab," he added.
Advocacy is one of council's strategic priorities for the term, Grenz said, because council recognizes there is only so much they can accomplish at the local government level.
The FCM provides municipalities with a "loud voice", Wood said, that is built on a respectful discussion and providing data that helps back up local appeals to senior levels of government.
"The more we can get it out there as mayors and councillors and regional directors across the entire country, province, then that helps get that voice out there," Wood added. "And that really helps, ideally, with keeping the property taxes low, and then the province and the feds have many more financial tools to raise the money to help us with the infrastructure."
Grenz and Wood recently discussed the conference on their podcast Non-Partisan Hacks, which is hosted on Apple Podcasts.
