BC Municipal Spending Watch 2010
For more details
BC Municipal Spending Report 2010
Full Report
Backgrounder
Municipalities with populations 5-10 thousand
Backgrounder
Municipalities with populations 10-25 thousand
Backgrounder
Municipalities with populations 25+ thousand
December, 2010
Heather Tilley, Research Analyst, Western Canada
Municipal operating spending in the vast majority of BC's municipalities continues to grow at an unsustainable rate. The results of the 3rd annual BC Municipal Spending Watch report include:
Municipal operating spending across the province grew 2.01 times faster than inflation and population growth over the period 2000 to 2008 (the last year data is available);
- Operating spending increased by 58 per cent from 2000 to 2008, while population and inflation increased by only 29 per cent over the same period;
- Growth in operating spending in 2008 was 9.7 per cent higher than last year compared with a 4.0 per cent increase in population and inflation, representing the largest single year-over-year increase for the entire period under consideration;
- Less than 1 in 10 BC municipal governments, representing only 1.2 per cent of the provincial population, kept operating spending growth at or below population and inflation;
- If BC's municipalities had maintained better fiscal discipline over the nine year period, taxpayers would have saved $883 million in 2008 alone, an average of $228 per person or $904 for a family of four.
Failure to control operating expenditures will mean tax and user fee hikes for small business and other taxpayers across BC for many years to come.
This is a wake-up call to taxpayers. It's time to demand more accountability from municipal governments!
