Parksville would like to see the provincial government provide annual funding to assist municipalities with increasing costs for essential services and infrastructure, as populations continue to grow.
City council voted unanimously to send a resolution by Coun. Sean Wood to the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities spring convention. It calls for a sustainable, recurring fund to generate $1 billion to assist communities, such as Parksville.
“The idea is that the province is off-loading a lot of responsibilities," Wood said during council's Feb. 3 meeting. "We see an increasing population and really our only way of paying for things is a regressive means, using property taxes."
The AVICC represents municipalities, regional districts and other local governments on Vancouver Island and coastal B.C.
It convenes every spring so members vote on resolutions, with some continuing on to the Union of BC Municipalities convention in the fall — an important step to bringing something to the attention of the provincial government.
Local governments face rising costs associated with essential services and infrastructure and must use property taxes as the main way to pay for costs such as infrastructure, which becomes increasingly difficult to cover, Wood's motion noted.
The motion proposes a recurring "Growing Communities Fund" to generate $1 billion annually through progressive taxation, distributed to local governments using the same formula as the fund distributed in 2022.
“The reason I chose $1 billion is because we know what that billion looks like at the local government level," Wood said. "They [the provincial government] can decide how they want us to spend it. They can put some strings on it, depending on their responsibilities and their priorities.”
Coun. Mary Beil said she appreciated that the 2022 fund went directly to local governments, since municipalities can be very different from one another.
“I really appreciate this money coming out to the municipality so that we could in fact choose what was the best thing for this to be spent on at this particular time and also looking ahead,” Beil added.
The 2025 AVICC Convention will be held in Nanaimo from April 11 to April 13.
