Susan Lazaruk, The Province December 1, 2010:
A vast majority of B.C. municipalities spent taxpayers’ money at double the rate that population and inflation grew from 2000 to 2008, and a business group is demanding they rein in their spending. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, in the third edition of its Municipal Spending Watch report, presented statistics showing B.C. cities and towns spent almost 10 per cent more on operating expenses in 2008 than in 2007, despite inflation and population only rising a combined four per cent.
This was the largest annual spending increase in the years covered by the report, putting the overall average “fiscal sustainability gap” at 2.01 times higher than population and inflation growth (a gap of 1.0 indicates that spending growth is on par with the combined rise in population and inflation). “The gap is in many cases enormous and I think this report should leave a lot of municipal politicians with red faces,” said spokeswoman Laura Jones. “It’s a very simple reality that every dollar they spend comes out of the pocket of the taxpayers. They should be held to account.” It was the ninth year in a row that most municipalities’ spending outstripped inflation and population, she said. In total from 2000-2008, municipal operating spending, which excludes capital spending, rose by almost 60 per cent, while population and inflation grew by 30 per cent. The gap for 2000-2008 ranged from a high of 3.87 in Prince George to a low of 1.15 in New Westminster. Ninety per cent of municipalities outspent inflation-population growth, the report found.
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| Coldstream 2007 |
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| Vernon 2007 |
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| Vernon 2008 |
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