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UBCM will work with province on auditor-general but their members don’t like it

September 29th, 2011 · 19 Comments

A Gordon Campbell lovefest — that’s what the annual convention of civic politicians often was. The former premier had been a councillor, a mayor, the head of Metro Vancouver, and the president of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, so people knew he understood what the job was like.

Thankless, gruelling hours, by and large crummy pay, and on the front lines of public sniper fire, unlike cushy provincial and federal jobs, where a phalanx of aides usually protect politicians from too much contact with the restless masses.

When Christy Clark said she’d bring in a municipal auditor-general and commented, as one senior civic politician recounted to me vividly, that “municipal spending is out of control,” that did not go over well with that group.

As my story in today’s Globe makes clear, Clark and her minister and her minister’s staff have been dedicating an unusual amount of time the last two weeks to trying to get back on good terms with that group. These 2,000-some politicians, after all, are out in the community every day telling their residents what they think of this or that provincial initiative.

The voters this morning grudgingly okay the UBCM to work with the province on figuring out how the office should work and what kinds of things it should do. But they also delivered the message loud and clear that they still didn’t think much of it.

Campbell’s speech at the end of the convention was often a platform for bringing presents to this group. Now civic politicians, feeling stung but hoping that the premier is genuine in wanting to improve her relationship to them, are waiting to see what she’ll do for their communities tomorrow.

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  • Christopher

    Why not have one? An increase in transparency is always welcome.

  • Morry

    The more Christy Clark talks the deeper the hole gets.

  • Silly Season

    I am for transparency in all matters to do wth City Hall.

  • MB

    I’m not impressed.

    It’s illegal for cities to run deficits. So municipal spending is “out of control”? Our newly minted and much inexperienced premier has to prove it. If she is so keen on the fiscal responsibility efforts of others rather than media perception, then please make it illegal for the province to practice deficit financing.

    The first city incurred debt exception in ages was for Vancouver which sought and received permission to violate the Vancouver Charter and go into debt to rescue the Olympic Village. Why the OV rescue wasn’t considered a national and provincial mission (the Olympics were a national symbol and would have faced partial collapse if the athlete’s didn’t have housing) instead of soley a municipal responsibility still mystifies me.

    Some cities are exceptionally well managed. The city of Burnaby, for example, has been able to leverage its land holdings over the decades into a huge capital reserve that now approaches $500 million. That’s half a billion in the black for a population of under 1/2 million.

    The reserve is also hard to get at. Municipal infrastructure in Burnaby is mostly self-financed. However, every road, firehall and park project that borrows from the reserve has to propose a bylaw with four council readings, then if approved (not always a sure thing) pay the reserve back with interest over time out of future department budgets. These budgets are planned five years in advance. This protects ratepayers from exorbitant municipal tax increases for dedicated capital projects.

    A munuicipal auditor would no doubt be impressed. More impressive is that Burnaby has been governed by an NDP-affiliated majority council for many years. Would that the tory blue provincial and federal politicians managed our public finances as well.

  • rf

    Is there anything legislation-wise that prevents municipalities from rolling back non-union contracted wages by 10-15% across the board?

    Salaries are by far the largest budget expenses. I understand and respect that union contracts are done deals, however, non-union employee salaries are typically much higher and represent a huge component of the workforce.

    Their salaries have gone up dramatically over the last 10 years.

    Aside from inertia and self-interest……why is this not a proposed solution over layoffs?

    What am I missing? (insert joke here….but add a real answer too.)

  • Julia

    salaries are less critical than pension liability.

  • spartikus

    What am I missing?

    That you’ve assumed the conclusion that BC municipalities are in some sort of crisis that would require salary rollbacks.

    So far [knock on wood] the Canadian economy keeps puttering, and our tax burden – federal, provincial, and municipal – remains middling compared to the OECD.

    A salary rollback for non-unionized staff in today’s climate would simply mean an exodus to the private sector.

    Of course, what you mean by “non-unionized staff” would need definition…the David Hahn’s of this province certainly – but then he’s Christie’s problem 🙂

    As Frances keeps alluding, there is very little gravy in the gravy train. While on any given day I might not like policy X and you might not like policy Y, Canada is on average a very well-governed country across all levels of government.

  • Mark Allerton

    @rf – I was under the impression that you were no fan of unionization given your rants in other threads. So why on earth would you be proposing to punish non-union employees?

    What better demonstration might there be of the usefulness of unionization even in these “enlightened” times.

  • IanS

    “Is there anything legislation-wise that prevents municipalities from rolling back non-union contracted wages by 10-15% across the board?”

    I assume these employees are operating under contracts of employment. A unilateral rollback would almost certainly constitute a fundamental breach, entitling the employees to actions for wrongful dismissal.

    The better way to achieve your objective, if such an objective should be sought, would be through layoffs or terminations.

  • rf

    because a contract is a contract, Mark. The time for hardball is when the contract expires or is being negotiated.

    I am not a fan of unionization, but I am a fan of contract law.

    I also believe the non-union employees are dramatically overpaid.

  • mezzanine

    The city of Burnaby, for example, has been able to leverage its land holdings over the decades into a huge capital reserve that now approaches $500 million. That’s half a billion in the black for a population of under 1/2 million.

    Don’t get me started on Derek Corrigan. i don’t doubt that Bby land value has increased, but I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that they had 2 skytrain lines placed there with funding mainly from the provincial govt. this especially stings when corrigan wants to put the kibosh on the broadway rapid transit link, of all things.

    It also helps burnaby when they really don’t provide as much service. Bby only have 2 city-run ice rinks versus 8 in vancouver, and IIRC they only have 4 public libraries versus the 22 the VPL. And I can’t find a link, but dollars to donuts bby spends less on homelessness etc.

  • MB

    Hi Mezz. You are of course correct on Corrigan, libraries, rapid transit and the lack of accommodation for the homeless.

    My iteration should have mentioned that Burnaby’s wealth is historic … it went bankrupt in the 30’s, but also took a few hundred acres in private property for non-tax payment. That created a land bank which it has managed (i.e. sold) to its benefit, and leveraged the funds over the decades into a big pile today.

    What isn’t mentioned is that a great deal of the land is sold to builders of schlocky plaster palaces in single-family large lot detached zoning areas.

    The focus of Frances’s post was on auditing cities from a financial standpoint. If the social aspects were audited, Burnaby would not fare very well at all, and the left-leaning council does come across as being quite conservative and for riding Vancouver’s coattails, which extend well into the region.

    It’s very telling to compare Vancouver, with its 22 libraries to Burnaby’s four, and 2.5 times the population with over seven times the annual budget. Vancouverites like me pay far more for regional services than other local cities.

    It also puts Burnaby’s half billion in capital reserves in a different perspective than you’d find when expanding the scope beyond fiscal management.

  • MB

    Correcdtion:

    It also puts Burnaby’s half billion in capital reserves in a different perspective than you’d find when LIMITING the scope to fiscal management.

  • rowbat

    I don’t see a compelling rationale for separate provincial auditing of municipalities. The ‘single taxpayer’ already pays for municipal audits, and all citizens get to pass judgement on governmental effectiveness on a regular basis (even more regularly at the municipal level than the provincial).

    It’s much easier to see this as a political tool for the province to use against municipalities that might dare to criticize provincial actions or policies. Visualize selective auditing of an unco-operative municipality in an election year – it adds a nasty new meaning to the term ‘bully pulpit’.

    If the province wants to suggest new common standards for municipal audits, they could make that suggestion. That at least might be a more impartial approach to a problem they feel exists.

  • Andrew

    The day the feds and provs stop downloading costs to our cities is the day that municipalities growth in spending is solved. What was the last thing the Feds did for you? *crickets* What was the last thing your city did for you? Roads, sidewalks, water, sewer, fields, sports, recreation, parks, culture, garbage removal, snow removal, emergency management, fire, police, engineering, building permits and inspections, social and cultural resources for the community, arts programs, on and on and on…

  • Andrew

    And, to be clear, one of the main points of protest on the part of UBCM is that cities – all cities – already pay for external auditors. And what was the province suggesting? Well, that the cities also pay for the new municipal auditor-general. Just in time for that same new office to criticize them for the resulting growth in spending, no doubt.

  • Bill

    “So far [knock on wood] the Canadian economy keeps puttering, and our tax burden – federal, provincial, and municipal – remains middling compared to the OECD.”

    And that is precisely the reason we should be addressing public service compensation now before we are dealing with a crisis situation. Start reducing the share of government spending in the economy before doing so would compound an economic slowdown.

    Exodus to the private sector? That is not necessarily a bad thing as the best and brightest should be in the private sector. There is something wrong when jobs in the public sector become the first choice of our best managers.

  • Frances Bula

    @Andrew. Just to be precise, the province promised that municipalities would not have to pay the cost of the municipal auditor-general, the province would.

  • mezzanine

    heck, since i feel like it and b/c corrigan keeps talking I’ll add more to my collection for the “The Quoatable Corrigan”:

    More impressive is that Burnaby has been governed by an NDP-affiliated majority council for many years. Would that the tory blue provincial and federal politicians managed our public finances as well.
    ….
    Who said the following recently? sarah palin? Rick Perry?

    “But there’s a lot of people in my community and people around the [local area] saying ‘I cannot take more taxes [for transit]’. And you find people like that get out and vote.”

    I’ll give you a hint – it’s david corrigan.

    I am unsure if his is affliated with the NDP, as he sure sounds like he can tea-party with the best of them…

    http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/aldergrovestar/news/131072098.html#0_undefined,0_