From the Saskatoon Regional Growth Summit, Kelly Daniels

1. Saskatoon Regional Growth
Summit
November 20-22, 2013
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2. What I will cover
1) Regional Government in British Columbia
• Brief history
• Key factors that make Regional Districts unique
2) Regional Growth Strategies/Plans
• What the legislation says
• What works and what doesn’t
3) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
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3. Regional Government in British
Columbia – Brief History
• Created in 1964
• 27 regional districts throughout province
• Primary consideration for creation:
– Province could no longer provide all services for rural areas
– Concept of a “federation” of municipalities and rural areas
that would reduce costs of service delivery through cooperation
– Not create a fourth level of government
• Major reviews in 1978 and 1986 with a broad review in
2001 each time resulting in more authority to regional
districts
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4. Key factors that make regional districts
unique
• Only mandatory services are:
– land fill operations
– rural emergency preparedness
• Board makeup:
– Rural directors are elected to Board
– Municipal directors are appointed annually to the
Board by their councils
– The number of directors from a municipality is
based on a population formula
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5. Key factors that make regional districts
unique - continued
• Voting Structure:
– Directors have up to five “weighted votes”
depending on the population they represent
– Corporate vote – most resolutions and general
Board conduct – all Directors, one vote
– Money matters – budget, borrowing, contracts
etc. – all Directors, weighted vote
– Stakeholder vote – management and operation of
individual services – participants only, weighted
vote
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6. Key factors that make regional districts
unique - continued
• Establishing a service:
– Services are created through an establishing bylaw –
basically a partnership agreement between participating
members
– Bylaw must:
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Describe service
Define boundary of who will receive and pay for the service
Outline method of cost recovery
State maximum amount to be requisitioned
– It may:
• Set out unique ways of apportioning costs (e.g.
assessment, population, capacity, users, etc.)
• Establish regulations
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7. Regional Growth Strategy/Plans
• What the legislation says:
– Purpose: To promote human settlement that is
socially, economically and environmentally healthy and that makes
efficient use of public facilities and services, land and other
resources
– Legislation enables regional district to develop strategy
– Regions can develop plans to meet local priorities
– Plans must address key policy areas:
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Statement on the future of the region: triple bottom line
Targets for greenhouse gas reductions
Eco-systems, natural areas, parks
Transportation
Regional district services
Population and employment projections
Housing
Economic development
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8. Regional Growth Strategy/Plans
Plans have varied degrees of success because:
• most regions do not have transportation planning authority
• Boards are often reluctant to uphold plans in the face of local
politics when attractive development proposals contravene
regional priorities
Plans are valuable for:
• Setting common regional land-use vision
• Providing additional support for local community plans
• Establishing regional priorities
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9. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
• The Good:
– Opportunity for cost saving and efficiencies in
providing regional and sub-regional services
– Opportunity for stronger regional voice on key
community issues
– Jurisdictions only participate in services they
choose
– Provides a forum to resolve regional disputes
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10. The Bad
• Public and media often don’t understand how regional
districts work or the services they provide
• Once you are in a service it is difficult to withdraw
• Often seen as unaccountable as most elected
representatives are appointed to the Board, not
elected
• Board representatives often don’t keep their councils
informed, causing misunderstandings and distrust
• Board members often have difficulty distinguishing
between regional interests and municipal interests on
key issues/votes
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11. The Ugly
• Often seen as dysfunctional because regional
disputes are debated at the Board table
• Loss of some municipal autonomy – some ugly
power struggles can happen at Board
• Political grandstanding at regional level to
strengthen local profile – diverting blame to
regional board
• Some regions have a large municipality or
heavy rural area that can dominate voting
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12. While they aren’t perfect…
“Regional districts do provide for inexpensive basic
rural government, a political forum and
administration for inter-municipal co-operation and
regional governance.”
- School of Public Administration (University of Victoria 1999)
“Regional districts are viewed in Canadian, and
increasingly in the US scholarly communities, as an
excellent (if not the best) way to promote intermunicipal cooperation where there are mutual
benefits.” – Robert Bish
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