BC Municipal Spending Watch 2011
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BC Municipal Spending Report 2011
Full Report
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business' fourth annual BC Municipal Spending Watch reveals a new ranking system and a worsening picture of local government spending.
The latest report shows municipal operating spending, adjusted for inflation, has ballooned to nearly four times the rate of population growth in BC.
Municipal operating spending
BC Municipal Operating Spending Growth (Adjusted for Inflation) and Population Growth, 2000-2009
While spending is tracked over a decade, from 2000-2009, this year's report also shows that the biggest operating spending increases have come in the most recent years. In 2009 the province's municipal operating spending totaled $4.4 billion, up $339 million from the year before.
Other findings:
- Funding transfers from other levels of government to municipalities have more than tripled in the last decade, rising 214% between 2000-2009
- Municipalities more than doubled the revenue they make from Sales of Services - everything from parking fees to business licenses.
- Vacation and destination communities are some of BC's freest spending offenders, putting crippling pressure on their smaller year-round populations.
- In communities where population is shrinking, local governments are spending more, not the same or less.
- A family of four in Lytton might have saved $42,175 over ten years, had that municipality held its operating spending to the rate of growth in population and inflation between 2000-2009.
This is a wake-up call to taxpayers. It's time to demand more accountability from municipal governments.
