UBCM News

Messages from the UBCM President, general advocacy communications, and information about Local Government Week.

5 Minutes With: a local chief and mayor, Nasu?kin Heidi Gravelle and Mayor Nic Milliagan

On the first day of Convention 2024, a province wide community-to-community forum was hosted by UBCM and the First Nations Leadership Council. To learn about their experience developing a relationship between a First Nation and local government, UBCM spent five minutes with a local mayor and chief Nasu?kin Heidi Gravelle, elected chief of Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi’it First Nation (Tobacco Plains Indian Band) and Nic Milligan is the mayor of neighbouring City of Fernie. (Nasu?kin is the Ktunaxa word for chief.)

In Memoriam: Linda McPhail

With sadness UBCM marks the passing of former UBCM Executive member and longtime councillor for the City of Richmond, Linda McPhail.

Linda served as a Richmond city councillor from 2011 to 2022, and was a school trustee for nine years before that. She served one term on the UBCM Executive Board from 2018-2019 where she contributed to the Health and Social Development Committee and Convention Committee.

Local government priorities at the foreground in Provincial meetings

UBCM’s Executive Board met with provincial leaders in Victoria to talk about common challenges local governments are dealing with across the province, with a focus on housing and homelessness, community safety, and infrastructure. Meetings with Premier Eby, Ministers Kahlon, Farnworth, Whiteside, Conroy and more, were an opportunity to discuss the ways these issues are affecting communities across the province, and what action is needed from the Province.

Action needed on homelessness

Homelessness is a serious and growing issue in BC, and local governments are seeing firsthand the need for more shelter spaces, affiliated social services, and bolstered first responder capacity. The UBCM Executive is meeting with the Premier, Ministers, and opposition MLAs to discuss these issues, and look for constructive solutions.

UBCM seeks intervenor status for injunction application related to public consumption

 

The Union of B.C. Municipalities intends to apply to the B.C. Supreme Court for intervenor status in a lawsuit brought against the Province of B.C. by the Harm Reduction Nurses Association challenging the legality of the Province’s Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act.

The act, which received Royal Assent in November 2023 but which has not yet been brought into force, bans the use of illicit drugs in certain public and recreation-focused spaces including:

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