Quesnel City Council has endorsed a resolution from the Union of BC Municipalities Convention in Whistler that calls for a 40 percent share on a per capita basis of what is projected to be 125 million dollars over the first two years.
Mayor Bob Simpson…
“That’s in the provincial budget, that is the number UBCM is using for their calculations, so 40 percent of that would be provided to local governments with 50 percent of that local share provided up front in order to assist us with all of the formalization, cost, bylaw time, our planning time, etc, and then the other 50 percent provided in the second year.”
This would be a two year deal and local governments, including Regional Districts, would get a 50 percent share of any revenues that go beyond the 125 million.
Simpson says because it is on a per capita basis, he would like to have a meeting between the City and the CRD…
“Because for us, about 52 percent, 53 percent of our population is outside the municipality proper but i think it’s fair to say that most of the impact is going to accrue to the municipality for this and the CRD will be given a per capita allocation and if it just accrues to the CRD central, the argument could be made that we’re not going to get a fair share ,so i think we need to look at some kind of sub-regional distribution on the CRD side and i will be taking that to the CRD in our dialogue about the same resolution.”
This model is based on one that has already been adopted in Ontario.
Councillor Scott Nelson would prefer a bigger piece of the pie, at least 50-50, and voted against the resolution.
Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg, also a member of the UBCM Executive, explains how they arrived at 40…
“It wasn’t meant to look like we were trying to gouge over and above what the costs would be, i think it was about starting here, it’s a 2-year agreement right, it’s not something that is written in stone for the next 5, 10 years. It’s about a 2 year agreement, see how it goes, see how it allows communities to have the revenue that they need to offset the costs when this becomes legal.”
The UBCM motion, endorsed by individual Councils, will then go to the Provincial Government.