2023

Whereas many smaller communities rely on not-for-profits and outside agencies to provide affordable and social purpose built rental housing; And whereas the Growing Communities Fund allows for the money to be invested in affordable housing, but requires that the controlling interest in the project must be owned by the local government providing the funding; And whereas forcing local governments to own rental housing when this is not their expertise, can create future asset management concerns, and can limit the ability to leverage the dollars and limit the ability to support local not-f

Whereas The Village project in Duncan has received temporary BC Housing funding since 2021 to offer individual sleeping units, external communal spaces, and shared washroom facilities to 34 previously unsheltered individuals; And whereas the support services, programs, and opportunities offered at The Village, including improved physical and mental well-being, peer outreach, neighbourhood monitoring, improved sanitation, street clean-up, and incident response have made a positive impact on the residents and has helped to reduce the related community impacts in the surrounding neighbourho

Whereas communities across British Columbia are facing a significant increase in calls to respond to emergency medical incidents; And whereas local governments provide for their fire departments to support prehospital patient care in their community by providing emergency medical services that assist the Provincial Governments BC Ambulance Service; And whereas the costs associated with supporting prehospital care by local government fire departments has increased significantly in relation to response hours and increased use of first aid and other medical supplies and that such costs are

Whereas First Nations are constitutionally recognized as a level of government in Canada and British Columbia, and have the inherent right to self-government, including decision-making over their own lands, resources, and governance through the provisions outlined in United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and provincial Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act; And whereas Section 90 of the Community Charter provides for the ability for confidential government to government negotiations, but does not include First Nations in this provision: Therefore b

Whereas climate change induced extreme weather events regularly overwhelm local government infrastructure; And whereas this creates liability risks, even in the absence of negligence on the part of BC local governments because of the wording of Section 744 of the Local Government Act, whose protection is qualified by the inclusion of the phrase breakdown or malfunction, while every other Canadian province and territory provides local governments with similar protection without this qualification; And whereas the Municipal Insurance Association of British Columbia has deemed this is the

Whereas BC local governments recognize the current housing crisis and lack of affordable housing across BC; And whereas local government infrastructure deficits and land availability may be a significant barrier to the creation or provision of affordable housing; And whereas provincial grant opportunities generally do not fund new or upgraded linear infrastructure or land acquisition: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM urges the Province, as part of their housing funding initiatives, to provide funding to local governments for new or upgraded infrastructure and land acquisition that wo

Whereas the Province is seeking to increase the speed of development across British Columbia amidst a shortage of affordable housing and housing supply options for British Columbia; And whereas development approval processes within municipalities can be streamlined to expedite approvals; And whereas these development approvals can be significantly delayed by the development review processes within the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, or BC Hydro; And whereas UBCM recognizes the efforts by the Province to try and improve the development approval p

Whereas developers may be required to provide offsite improvements such as Arterial Highway intersection upgrades not owned by a municipality as part of their developments; And whereas the first developer may be required to install upgrades as directed by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure which may also be required by subsequent developers for other projects: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM urges the Province to create a legislative framework to allow for latecomer charges or similar mechanism to be collected from subsequent developers to be paid to the first developer

Whereas municipal RCMP detachments are experiencing ongoing temporary and permanent vacancies across British Columbia, at the same time as they are being asked to respond to calls for service outside their core expertise e.g.

Whereas the Province has adopted vacancy taxes on vacant residential properties as one tool to assure land speculation does not result in property standing fallow to the detriment of community livability and other goals; And whereas commercial property values are inflating province-wide, and increasingly face investment speculation resulting in similar underutilization of commercial property in many municipalities across British Columbia: There be it resolved that the Province of BC provide local governments with adoption to introduce a vacant property tax applicable to commercial propert