Prince George, B.C.- City Councilor Garth Frizzell  has been chosen to Chair the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Standing Committee on Municipal Finance and Intergovernmental Arrangements.

The committee identifies strategic areas and pushes for federal government change that may reduce costs, improve revenues, or protect against additional burdens for municipalities.

 “The taxation system in Canada is set up to give the federal and provincial governments 92 cents out of every tax dollar, “ said Frizzell, “but local governments, who only get the remaining 8 cents, have seen more downloaded responsibilities, sometimes with no new funding, and sometimes with less funding.”

With a federal election expected next year, there is a lot of work for the Committee to do “FCM has had significant success in moving national policy so that the financial imbalance across governments can be fixed,” says Frizzell.

Frizzell will be joined by two vice-chairs, Councilor Sav Dhaliwal from the City of Burnaby and Councilor Michael Thompson from the City of Toronto.