Victoria Passes Down the Pain

When a government is in a budget-cutting mood, it often makes other levels of government share the pain.  Usually it doesn't ask governments below them in the pecking order how they'd like a little pain.  It just drops a brick or two on their heads.  This is called "downloading."

For example, in the mid-1990s when Paul Martin was the Finance Minister, the federal government decided to balance its budget by cutting transfer payments to the provinces.  Mr. Martin bragged about the excellent work he was doing in taming the federal deficit.  The provinces had to deal with a $7 billion cut in funding for health and education.

The BC government did similar things to cities and towns in the late 1990s.  The NDP government cut general-purpose grants to the municipalities, and cities either had to raise their own taxes or cut services.

Liberals vowed to end shell game

To individual taxpayers and local businesses all this looks like an elaborate shell game.  One government brags about reducing deficits and grabs for the glory. Another government becomes the goat and may have to raise taxes.

The Campbell government promised to end the shell game for B.C.'s cities and towns with a new "community charter" which would enable municipalities to raise money in a variety of different ways.  More importantly, the government made a solemn pledge: no more downloading.  In fact, the provincial government would give cities and towns 75 percent of the revenue from traffic fines.  Money for nothing! 

It sounded too good to be true, and it was. The Campbell government has not given B.C.'s cities and towns one dime of the promised traffic fine revenue. Nor do municipalities have any new fund-raising powers. Since business groups in the province are leery about cities having any more ability to tax, cities shouldn't hold their breath.

What the provincial government has done, in spite of its pledges, is to turn downloading into a fine art. Municipal politicians and their senior staff are getting dizzy as new loads of bricks are dumped on their heads every year. In defence, or maybe as a form of gallows humour, they now distinguish between three different types of downloading.

Three ways to drop a brick on someone else

First, there's "downloading" classic: The province cuts funding for a service and the municipalities have to pick up the costs.  For example, the province has said it plans to cut grants that help small communities pay for police services.  Since policing is an essential service, towns with fewer than 5,000 residents will have to find additional money.

But that's only one variety of provincial cuts.  A second variety is "soft-loading."  The provincial government cuts a service, knowing full well that local governments will have to absorb additional costs. For example, when the province cut court services in smaller communities, the towns knew that they would have to pay additional costs for police and staff to attend court in larger centres. Some towns were so desperate to retain court services that they bought their own courthouses. 

Similarly, cities are besieged by sports and arts groups trying to find additional funds to replace grants cut by the province. Regional districts are busily picking up the costs of maintaining campsites no longer serviced by the Forest Ministry. The Ministry of Transportation stops mowing roadside vegetation along provincial highways; cities can't stand the eyesore and mow it themselves.

The third variety of cuts is "off-loading." The provincial government cuts broad services to the public. The municipalities have no legal ability to provide the funding and restore the services, so the entire community suffers. Welfare supports are cut, and local charities are overwhelmed by the increased need.  Programs for families and children are slashed; domestic violence rises, as do policing costs.

Downloading, soft-loading, off-loading - it's a new era for municipalities all right, but not the one they were promised.

Paul Ramsey is a former NDP MLA and Cabinet Minister.  He now teaches at CNC and is a Visiting Professor in the Political Science Program at UNBC.