An election campaign is only a small phase of promises. Administration is the larger proof in the pudding, the presumed delivery on the dedication all these weeks and months to serve in the four years ahead.
While we may think we live in unique locales, British Columbia’s Oct. 15 municipal elections carry with them many shared themes and issues among the priorities for communities large and small in their new terms.
How well the mayors and councils tackle these concerns will be critical to our well-being, because the downloading of duties to our cities, towns and villages has been significant in the last generation.
Let’s look at 10 common challenges they have in governing:
1. Inflation. OK, cost-of-living increases have hit households for more than a year now and look to be with us for at least another, in part because of supply chain problems and in part because wages and salaries have not kept pace. Now that we are no longer dismissing inflation as a temporary, transitory thing, the question for municipalities is whether they will choose to join the inflationary momentum by raising property taxes and fees or prune their discretionary spending by delaying plans and reducing services. When inflation was minimal and the economy was roaring, these increases from city hall were more bearable; in a recession prompted by measures to combat inflation, much less so. Is it time to be frugal or time to furnish those campaign promises?
2. Interest rates. Sure, it’s the central bank’s job to set the benchmark rate, but the impact is felt acutely at the community level with businesses and homeowners that will find it harder to manage their borrowings. How responsive communities are to these connections to the inflationary times, how willing they are to help relieve some of the impact, will determine the viability of their business sectors and consumer stability.
3. Health care. Yes, indeed, it’s a provincial jurisdiction and many communities can be accused of overreaching when they govern. But there likely isn’t a community in British Columbia that would pronounce its health-care system fit. It is going to fall to municipalities to argue for reforms and resourcing in their places to turn around a situation in which we lack physicians, facilities and a plan to deal with every city’s aging population. The BC Urban Mayors’ Caucus has recognized the challenge and started to lobby, a good early step.
4. Climate change. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s mid-October and the ground is like stone across much of the province. Our February came in June. We are pretty much naming our atmospheric rivers like Floridians name their hurricanes. Yet many of our municipalities lack community plans designed for these newer weather episodes, nor efforts to contribute to what needs to be a global effort to decarbonize the economy. The next four years will likely tap the outliers to get in the game. We can argue about the necessary degree of commitment, but the evidence in our waterways, on our mountains and in the air is more than enough to activate those on the sidelines.
5. Infrastructure. In part this is a climate change offshoot, but it’s also about a smarter stewardship of our abundant water. Many of the province’s water, sewer and waste management systems are outmoded. We will be dealing with vehicles for generations, but our bridges and many of our arteries are not keeping pace. Yet many municipalities address these issues over vast horizons to defray the expense.
6. Housing. Like it or not, the provincial government has been clear as a bell that municipalities need to accelerate the construction of housing or it is prepared to usurp those delegated powers and assert its constitutional authority to create plans for them. It has been highly critical of permitting processes and council reticence to fill a range of housing needs, particularly rental, seniors and housing aimed at lower-income British Columbians. Even its political opposition is urging municipalities to build, build, build. This will be in some cases the largest conflict between communities that want only gentle densification and a province that wants a broader range of housing than the market-rate mainstay we see today.
7. Transportation. Crucial in the quest to minimize the climate change and infrastructure impact, and critical in helping many people deal with affordability issues in communities, is the need for further investments in public transit and in establishing stronger frameworks for sustainable mobility. Again, most every municipality is lagging badly behind population and commuting growth.
8. Public safety. We are contending with violent consequences of mental health challenges, addictions and trauma in communities, yet most are ill-equipped to respond. Again, this is principally a matter for senior governments to resolve the deeper issues, but communities will need to increasingly push for their own resources to contend with threats to public safety.
9. Reconciliation and equity, diversity and inclusion. The reduction of urban inequality, the respect and inclusion of First Nations, clear commitments to governance by a public service reflective of those it serves, and measures to contend with income inequality are necessary priorities for each mayor and council in the time ahead. Early steps still fall short and some communities have permitted an invisible poverty to be unaddressed.
10. The pandemic. Let’s not forget that the pandemic remains with us, much as we try to carry on pretending not. Its effects on communities include more people working remotely, which curtails downtown commerce, and ongoing increased absenteeism due to the coronavirus itself. Much as we put COVID-19 out of our minds more often now, this fall and winter will bring cases and challenges again.
Kirk LaPointe is publisher and editor-in-chief of BIV and vice-president, editorial, of Glacier Media.