WHEREAS the economic downturn has had a profound effect on rural communities in BC but has not diminished the need to maintain and expand infrastructure development for the future; AND WHEREAS the funding application processes for these programs can be labour intensive with extremely long time lines from submission, to approval, to receipt of funding: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the UBCM lobby provincial and federal governments to develop general infrastructure funding programs that are readily accessible by local governments with streamlined application processes.
Ministry of Transportation Infrastructure The Province is aware that communities are concerned about the complexity of the application process used to access infrastructure funding programs. In response, the Premier announced at the 2008 UBCM Convention that the Province would be simplifying the application process for its programs. This has been achieved by reducing the complexity of applications forms for the Towns for Tomorrow and LocalMotion programs, and notifying applicants of the decisions within 60 days of the application deadline. The Province has worked with the federal government to simplify the process to access federalprovincial funding. During this past spring, applicants used the same forms to apply for funding from both the Building Canada Fund Communities Component and the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund programs. Over 400 applications requesting over 1 billion in federal and provincial funding were received. All the funding for the current programs has been committed and can be found at: www2.news.gov.bc.canewsreleases2009-20132009PREM0038-000403.htm