Every year the UBCM Executive sponsors special resolutions that address priority issues. This year they get at some of the specific areas where coordination is needed to respond to complex social issues that are beyond the jurisdiction of any one body.
These resolutions will be individually considered by the membership at the first resolutions session on Wednesday morning, including one extraordinary resolution that proposes a new framework to evaluate resolutions in future years.
A summary of these resolutions follow. Read the full resolutions starting on page 23 of the Resolutions Book.
Streamline the Resolutions Process: To sharpen UBCM’s advocacy, Executive is proposing a new framework to evaluate submitted resolutions. The framework will ensure resolutions that make it to the floor are: focused on new issues, relevant for local governments across the province, and involve the core services that local governments provide. This resolution requires a 3/5 super majority of membership support to pass, because it requires a change to UBCM bylaws.
Homelessness: Calling for increased funding to deliver shelters, supporting housing, and other needed services in a regional way, with coordination between local governments, provincial agencies, First Nation governments, Indigenous organizations, nonprofits, housing authorities, and community members.
RCMP Services Agreement: Policing costs are some of the largest budget items for local governments. This resolution calls for early local government participation in negotiating the next 20-year Municipal Police Unit Agreement. The current agreement expires in 2032.
Library funding: Libraries are primarily funded by local governments, but the Province’s contribution has steadily declined – from 21% in 1989 to 6% in 2022. Libraries are increasingly stepping in to help assist provincial objectives for the economic and social health of communities. This resolution calls for the Province to un-freeze and increase its contribution to BC libraries.
UNDRIP Implementation: Co-sponsored by the Tla’amin First Nation and UBCM Executive, this resolution calls on the Province to provide support and resources to help local governments transform their approach to reconciliation, in alignment with the Province’s commitment to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Infrastructure & Permitting: This resolution calls for the Province to invest in the infrastructure and services required to meet housing growth, environmental regulations, and climate resiliency through a predictable allocated funding transfer to local governments, and to invest in its own areas of responsibility including improving permitting processes.