A business advocacy group is giving Prince George municipal officials high praise.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has patted Prince George on the back for its spending habits in a recent report.
CFIB is a non-profit business organization that represents the interests of business owners to all three levels of government. Every year they release a report called the British Columbia Municipal Spending Watch on municipal spending throughout the province.
This year they've singled out Prince George as an example of good municipal spending, despite concluding that most municipal governments are increasing municipal spending far beyond the rate of inflation.
“In fact, across all B.C. municipalities between 2006 and 2016, inflation-adjusted spending increased by 43 per cent while population growth was just 12 per cent – almost four times faster!” says CFIB in a news release regarding the report.
The report used financial data from 2006 to 2016 to calculate the results, focusing particularity on the 2015-16 fiscal year.
The British Columbia Municipal Spending Watch Report is released annually by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “Prince George, Burnaby and the City of North Vancouver all experienced negative population growth. However, municipal spending declined in Prince George. In contrast, Burnaby and the City of North Vancouver increased municipal spending,” says the report.
“Prince George’s ability to decrease spending indicates they may have better practices in place to control spending growth than Burnaby and the City of North Vancouver and should be commended.”
The report notes Maple Ridge, Richmond and Coquitlam decreased municipal spending after adjusting for inflation, despite experiencing positive population growth.
CFIB concludes that, “the broader implications of these results is that population growth does not always necessitate municipal spending growth. Thus, it is clear that municipalities have the capacity to decrease their spending while their population grows and retain service levels.”
Out of B.C.’s 20 largest cities, Port Coquitlam was ranked first in terms of fiscal performance. Their spending increases per capita from 2006 to 2016 increased the least among the cities at only 7.6 per cent.
In comparison, Prince George's per capita spending grew by 14.6 per cent, earning Prince George the number 10 spot in the list of 20.
