FCM Sets Election Priority
Prince George, B.C.- Prince George City Councillor Garth Frizzell is back from a meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and says the FCM has set its sights on what it sees as the priority issue during the upcoming federal election campaign.“We’re telling Canadians, make no mistake; if a political party doesn’t have a serious plan to work with municipalities, then they don’t have a serious plan for the economy,” said Frizzell.
One hundred municipal leaders from across the Country huddled in Burnaby to develop the FCM election platform, and the bottom line is, if a political party says it wants to strengthen the Canadian economy, it will have to make strides to work with cities and municipalities to make it happen.
“This is not about what municipalities need, it’s about what the country needs ” said Frizzell. “Infrastructure, affordable housing, and trade and investment are proven job creators. The time has come for the federal government to focus on the things it can control to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.”
The FCM says a strong Canada starts with strong hometowns.
Comments
Should be a federal law that property taxes can only be used for the maintenance and capital costs of local area infrastructure and utilities.
Everything else a municipality does should be funded progressively through a percentage share of the collected income taxes with each region attributed something like 20% of the income taxes that are collected in that region or city. With modern computers there is no reason why this kind of taxation sharing couldn’t be done.
So if you pay 15% of your earnings in income tax… then the city gets the 20% of that for a total of 3% of your earnings… the senior government the rest. If you are in a 29% bracket then the city is getting nearly 6% of your income as its 20% share of your 29% income tax.
A home owner should not be held hostage to every whim of a city… it is inherently unfair especially to those on a fixed income. The tax burden should be shared by those that have income in the community, so that everyone has a stake in the revenue of the city and not just the property owners.
Maybe it’s time for some fiscal responsibility from the municipalities? A city the size of PG shouldn’t be saddled with 50 million is salaries.
Intresting comment about 50 million in salaries. I wonder what the ratio of salary to population is in most communities is. Someone or there must know.
@thinkagainplease a quick search indicates that in 2012 Kamloops was at $53 million and Nanaimo was at $55.5 million in 2013 for their city employees, so PG is on par :)
Posted on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 @ 7:57 AM by anniemartin
@thinkagainplease a quick search indicates that in 2012 Kamloops was at $53 million and Nanaimo was at $55.5 million in 2013 for their city employees, so PG is on par :)
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Doesn’t mean it’s fiscally responsible though; it just means there’s a lot of people gorging at the public trough.
Not saying one way or the other but your comparison has only one data point, so no real correlation can be drawn. population/salaries would be a good measure for an initial review of where the city wages overall. You could look deeper into the analysis. This would be an hr function. I would read the report.
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