Castlegar’s mayor attended the Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention at the end of September, where he took part in voting on resolutions that the union will present to the province and met with the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
Mayor Lawrence Chernoff was especially excited about a resolution the UBCM passed asking “the provincial government to match the federal government’s percentage of spending on infrastructure projects.”
“Because what we get now, it’s like eight cents on a dollar, which really doesn’t go a long way,” said Chernoff.
Local governments receive eight cents on each tax dollar collected in Canada, according to the UBCM, and yet also own 60 per cent of all Canadian infrastructure.
The federal government has committed 50 per cent of the cost of infrastructure projects in the first phase of its infrastructure spending, and will soon be negotiating the second stage “with a potential similar contribution.”
For Chernoff, a big benefit of discussing the resolutions is to get a sense of what other municipalities are concerned about and to know that the problems faced by any individual community are not necessarily unique.
“That’s why I like resolutions is because they come from all over the province and then you look at them — how does that fit our needs in the community? — and you get a generally good idea that you don’t sit there by yourself,” he said.
As a member of the BC Municipal Climate Leadership Council (BCMCLC), Chernoff also had the opportunity to meet with George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
BCMCLC talked to Heyman about the role of the provincial government in climate action and Chernoff felt the meeting went well.
“He had a very good understanding of what we were after and [was] very [amenable] to our suggestions and [meeting] with us on a regular basis so we can find this common ground in the environment and the things we need to do together,” he said.
Chernoff also had a chance to meet with the Minister of Health and Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, but only very briefly. The meetings were chances to introduce himself to the ministers and set up longer meetings with them in Victoria at the end of the month.
He hopes to combine the trip with the Climate Leadership Institute conference, hosted by the BCMCLC, in Vancouver from Nov. 1 to 3.