Prince George Coun. Garth Frizzell has been selected to lead a national committee aimed at pushing the feds to make changes benefiting local governments.
Frizzell is chairing the Federation of Municipalities' standing committee on municipal finance and intergovernmental relations.
"We have to rely far too much on property tax in Prince George and across Canada," he said, in a press release. "When Canada sees growth in the economy or the population, that means stronger tax revenue for the provinces and the country, but not for municipalities."
The committee of 35, vice chaired by Burnaby Coun. Sav Dhaliwal and Toronto Coun. Michael Thompson, identifies areas where the federal government can make changes to help reduce costs, improve revenues or protect municipalities against additional financial burdens.
"The taxation system in Canada is set up to give the federal and provincial governments 92 cents out of every tax dollar but local governments, who only get the remaining eight cents, have seen more downloaded responsibilities, sometimes with no new funding, and sometimes with less funding," Frizzell said.
Frizzell was re-elected to the FCM's board of directors for the sixth year during the organization's annual general meeting in June.
