Whereas the Provincial government has an interest in local governments actively participating in, or delivering, many of its initiatives, priorities, and programs, and has developed a broad range of grant programs to provide funding assistance to local governments to facilitate such work; And whereas grants provide a valuable source of revenue for capital projects and other major one-time expenditures, but discretionary grant programs constitute an insecure funding stream for on-going program work undertaken by local governments, such as emergency management and fire protection programs, requiring a significant administrative commitment relating to application submissions and financial reporting; And whereas both local and the Provincial governments benefit from having more secure, less administratively onerous Provincial funding streams available to facilitate local government participation in Provincially supported programs, such as the existing, ongoing funding that is provided through annual operating agreements for BC Transit partnerships and Victim Services partnerships; Therefore be it resolved that UBCM ask the provincial government to review its funding model to local governments to consider moving away from one-time, grant-based funding models for ongoing local government programs, such as emergency management and fire protection, to a more secure on-going and sustainable funding model based upon annual operating agreements in support of Provincial initiatives, priorities, and programs.
Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Municipal Affairs The Province of British Columbia is committed to providing local governments with reasonable funding flexibility and sustainability to ensure grant programs can be efficiently administered for the good of all British Columbians. The Province annually provides over 100 million annually in unconditional grant funding to local governments across British Columbia. Unconditional grants are highly flexible as there are few or no constraints on how the money is spent. They are primarily operating grants for good governance and service provision. The Province places more restrictions on grants that are earmarked for specific high-priority infrastructure projects. Many of these projects are expensive, publicly scrutinized and relate to issues of public health and environmental quality. Thus, these projects require a high level of oversight to ensure they are planned and constructed in a timely and appropriate manner in accordance with the conditions of a specific grant agreement. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs is open to discussing more flexibility in grant programs. However, this must be done in the context of addressing competing concerns such as project transparency, accountability and cost efficiency.