A pecking order, in the feathered world of poultry, is a system of social arrangement. Those birds strutting through a beta existence avoid the feed until their alpha counterparts achieve full glut.
In the human realm, the term is usually used to describe any kind of hierarchy, social, governmental or anything else.
The hierarchy of government can be vexing. The feds call shots, fill their bellies, and toss leftovers to the provinces, who do much of the same before leaving the remaining grain to municipalities. And so municipal unions coalesce in the hopes of a bigger bite.
To that end, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) convenes annually to interface with those senior circles of government. On the convention floor, which this September, will be in Penticton, delegates shape policy from a host of resolutions passed by regional districts and municipal governments. This year, 230 resolutions have streamed into a UBCM committee struck to manage such things. That figure is down from about 260 last year, according to UBCM President Susie Gimse.
In addition to forming a policy front, members of B.C.’s 189 local governments have the opportunity to meet with provincial officials and ministers.
“It provides a venue for advancing community issues,” said Gimse. “It also provides an opportunity to work with one another, to network and find out what other communities are doing. The most important aspect is that through our resolution process it sets the policy among the membership and guides us in our deliberations with provincial and federal governments.”
But how effective are those deliberations? How easy is it to convince a bigger bird to forgo a few pecks in favour of its smaller counterparts? Given that the poultry world is devoid of an electoral apparatus, fowl are less likely to score points than municipal leaders. But even municipal leaders hit loggerheads, regardless of their grassroots proximity to voters.
There are nearly 30 regional districts in British Columbia, which is a unique set-up in Canada — though not North America, as the United States uses that approach for areas outside municipal boundaries. In B.C., those entities are allotted powers under the Local Government Act, which Gimse, herself a director in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, finds restrictive. There’s been many an effort to have regional districts brought under the umbrella of the Community Charter.
“What we were able to do last year was establish a regional district task force with the province to look at ways of addressing issues that are problematic for regional districts without the community charter,” said Gimse. “It’s a half measure, but it’s not where (the regional districts) want to be.”
But, while that front may be a source of frustration, there are many others producing gains. Most recently, UBCM made considerable headway on the controversial file of the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA), previously a source of concern for many local governments worried about losing autonomy.
“You look at TILMA, and, at (last year’s) conference, the membership approved 10 policy directions for us,” said Gimse, “and we were fairly successful on that.
“Another area where the membership approved a policy direction was with respect to climate action. It basically said, ‘This is a great idea, but what about these other factors and how it’s going to affect us?’ We were able to get clarity in that area.
“Another area we got direction on, there were a lot of issues related to regional hospital districts. We got the province to sit down with us and go over a review. That work has begun. We’ve hired a consultant to identify some of the issues for us so we can sit down with the province and negotiate terms of the agreement in terms of how we, the local property taxpayers, contribute towards the hospital structure.”
But then there’s fiscal imbalance. When it comes to revenue generation and expenditure responsibilities, the provinces call foul with the feds, while the municipalities do the same with provinces.
Squamish Councillor Greg Gardner is often heard kicking that wall. Not long ago, he tabled a motion put forth to UBCM regarding the possibility of leveraging further tax authority from the provincial government. He set his sights on the property transfer tax, a revenue-generating tool he’d like to see municipal governments acquire to help pay for the countless responsibilities the province relieves itself from.
“We dealt with some of this last week in council,” he said at the end of July. “Issues like dyking, issues like determining flood construction levels — that takes enterprise and money. Another is the riparian area regulation and the level of protection.”
Gimse hears the thrashing.
“Municipal and regional districts across the province have been saying enough now,” she said. “We can no longer continue to fund the communities on the back of property taxes. And if you look at our revenue source in local government, we’re limited. We have property taxation and fees and charges. When we need to raise cash to pay for a specific service, our options are we raise the fees, or we raise taxes or reduce service. And we’ve been hearing consistently from local governments from across the province that we need to look at new revenue sources.”
Things are moving sluggishly on that front. Like when the provinces, notably Nova Scotia, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan raised hell about what they perceived as a fiscal imbalance. It took an election to get things going. And even then, there were many malcontents, most infamously Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, who made threats and destroyed national symbols in the throes of his fury.
To hear Gimse tell it, things don’t seem quite so dramatic in British Columbia. Preliminary discussions, she said, are underway. What the province wants is proof.
“So we are in fact doing some work,” she said. “We’ve hired a consultant to look at the history in terms of where we’ve been and where we are now and potential opportunities for the future. So we are starting to do some work. We will be discussing further with our members at the convention.”
The conventions, she continued, are far from toothless. The province respects UBCM, almost has to, thanks to the organization’s connectivity with voters. Should an initiative come on stream with municipal implications, then the province takes it upon itself to consult with the UBCM.
“We do make strides,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t see them right away. Sometimes it’s building relationships.”
