Mayor Brian Taylor recently attended the inaugural BC Mayors’ Caucus from May 16 to 18 in Penticton, B.C.
The meeting saw 86 mayors from across British Columbia gathering to discuss social, economic and cultural growth of urban and rural cities.
“It was certainly productive,” said Taylor. “The intention is not to work on cross-purposes with UBCM (Union of British Columbia Municipalities) but to complement that organization. There were a lot of good comments, but there was a lot of good discussion about where the costs are building up when we get a government grant.”
Taylor pointed out that event with grants have hidden fees because cities have to calculate the costs of reporting, engineering and organization factors that add up.
“The mayors are ready to tackle some of the things that have been really big picture issues,” he added. “Why can’t cities have five-year planning for financial purposes, rather than forcing us to compete with each other all the time for grants? It’s divisive in itself in the nature.”
Taylor noted that networking was important to gain a better understanding of what other communities are doing.
The mayors wanted to find away to deliver services to their communities with the tax dollars that they are already collecting, stated Taylor.
“We talked about ways to get rid of the bureaucracy, red tape and the rules that we make that end up strangling us,” he said. “We talked about grants and how we can do them better. For me, it has motivated me to look at government differently and how it separates communities from each other.”
The B.C. Mayors’ Caucus plans to meet again in September, prior to UBCM
The mayor noted that the mayors’ caucus hasn’t decided whether or not they would be connected to the UBCM meeting, or remain a separate identity.
According to a BC Mayors’ Caucus press release, the goals of the caucus are “to forge policy to bring forward to the federal and provincial governments, explore means of mutual support, seek economic benefits through shared resources and to pursue economic development.”
The BC Mayors’ Caucus steering committee is made up of nine members from across the province.
