Whereas the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing administers the approval of the Development Cost Charges Bylaw for local governments and has rejected the inclusion of local government capital costs for Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure MOTI highway interchanges on the basis that the local government does not own the aforementioned tangible capital asset; And whereas MOTI expects up to 33 per cent of highway interchange capital costs be paid for by the local government: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the Province of BC to provide for local governments to be able to include their portion of the capital cost for MOTI interchanges in their Development Cost Charges Bylaw or that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure fully fund capital costs for all MOTI-owned interchange projects.
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Development cost charges DCCs are for local government capital costs required to service future growth like local parks, transportation infrastructure roads, transit, and active transportation, sewers, water and drainage systems. DCCs have been used by Municipalities to partner on key infrastructure design to support development and growth in communities adjacent and beyond provincial infrastructure. A review of the policy has determined that DCCs can not apply to infrastructure not owned by the local government regardless of the benefits to the individual parties including development. DCCs have been used by local government to fund provincially owned infrastructure that supports community and development-driven traffic demands such as the 216th Interchange Project completed in 2020. However, the information submitted by municipalities with the DCC bylaw did not clearly indicate ownership of the infrastructure. The Province of BC relies on the disclosure of ownership in order to equitably review all DCC bylaws and has adjusted its review procedure accordingly. Expanding DCCs to include provincial infrastructure could represent an increase in the allowable scope of DCCs, which may result in cost impacts for developers. Conversely, not expanding DCCs to provincial infrastructure needs to be considered carefully as it will impact municipal partnership opportunities on future infrastructure projects. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure brought the matter before the Development and Finance Review Committee DFRC in July 2021, where the information was received, and the Committee made additional requests for information. All agencies and the DFRC committee are still exploring the full scope and understanding of the impacts. The DRFC is a standing committee made up of representatives from the Province, local governments, and the development industry and makes recommendations to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs on issues impacting development finance including DCCs. All ministries involved appreciate that time is of the essence on this matter, as upcoming projects on the Highway 1 corridor are anticipating leveraging municipal partnerships, such as the Highway 1 216th to 264th project as well as the Highway 1 264th to Whatcom Project.Local governments have indicated that without the ability to access DCC funding, they may be unable to make a financial contribution, resulting in a risk to delivering these mandate commitment projects.Similar conversations have occurred with other local governments throughout the Lower Mainland.