I find it very interesting that the Province, given it's financial position, would challenge the spending habits of municipalities. This all came about when The Confederation of Independent Business (CFIB) issued their 2010 Municipal Spending Watch. One of the recommendations was the establishment of a Municipal Auditors Office.
Before I go any further let me say that Port Moody came out very well in the report. We were the second most responsible city out of all cities in BC with a population over 25,000. The purpose of a municipal auditor would be to oversee municipalities far worse than ours.
That being said the concept and the possibility of slowly eroding away municipal autonomy worries me. An article in the Vancouver Sun on Sept 26 illustrates my point, "All Clark said was that given the role municipal governments play in communities and in providing the services families need, we need to look at the competition between commercial, industrial and residential taxation, the role local government is playing and find ways to make sure the taxpayer is being well-served. Oh, she also said the office will provide advice on financial decisions and provide a measure of accountability."
What does "measure of accountability" mean. Is that the thin edge of the wedge where eventually cities will be told to bring themselves in line with what others are doing.
Let me give you an example - Public safety is the number one concern of Port Moody residents. They have made it clear that when they need help response must be quick. In order to accomplish this our city requires a smaller officer/population ratio. Currently I believe it is around 1 officer per 700 people. This makes for very effective policing. Other cities have up to 1 officer per 1000 people. Those are the departments that don't necessarily come out when your house is broken into. Along comes a Municipal Auditor who says "1/1000 is good enough in other communities, you need to do that too". Would this happen, who knows - but it might!
In the end it is the community that must decide what level of services they want for their city, it's not up to the province.
Now if the province can guarantee that they will not mandate but only provide advice on best practices then I see no harm to it, except of course we will have another government department costing $millions a year and there is only one taxpayer - you and me!
