A contingent of Prince George politicians will meet with their local government counterparts from across the country in Niagara Falls this weekend.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities' annual general meeting between May 30 and June 2 is expected to draw nearly 2,000 municipal leaders to the Ontario city.
"A strong Canada begins with strong hometowns, and we need more hometown champions across the country and at every level of government," FCM president Claude Dauphin, said in a press release. "I know Canadians share this belief and they expect our federal government to work with municipalities to ensure we have the tools to build, move and innovate."
How much influence municipalities should be trying to exert over their federal counterpart is going to be a topic of discussion at this year's event, which will also feature keynote addresses from federal Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt, International Trade Minister Ed Fast, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and Green leader Elizabeth May.
"For me it's a no-brainer but you should revisit that question from time to time," said Coun. Garth Frizzell, who will be attending a workshop on the topic.
Frizzell is also up for re-election to the federation's 74-member board of directors, which he's been a part of since 2009.
The raison d'etre for FCM would be greatly limited without their attempts to influence federal policy, said Frizzell.
"One-fourth of our meetings of the board is up on Parliament Hill actually directly lobbying with the MPs and the senators, but it will be good to revisit that, revitalize the reasoning why we're doing it," Frizzell said.
For the past five years, FCM focus was heavily targeted towards getting the federal government to renew expiring infrastructure funding.
"It was really clear when we were fighting for the infrastructure dollars because it was something that was hurting every community all across Canada," said Frizzell. "So it drew us together against a threat."
Where the group can have a strong effect is in banding together to find common local problems and make them national issues, said Coun. Cameron Stolz.
During Monday night's city council meeting, received approval to reapply to sit on the federation's standing committees for another year. Over the past year, he has sat on the joint FCM-Railway Association of Canada proximity issues and dispute resolution committees.
"FCM is about teamwork," said Stolz. "So it's not just about Prince George saying 'we need something' it's about saying 'Prince George needs this and it's also needed in Prince Albert, Sask., it's also needed in Quebec, in one of all these different communities across the country... and that allows you to then have a discussion with the federal ministries to say 'this is a national issue and here's how it affects each of these different areas and this is why it would be good policy to move that forward.'"
