Mayor Dan Rogers says it's "extremely frustratiing" to see Ottawa provide $5 million to relocate a police station in Vancouver while no money will be coming from senior governments for construction of a new RCMP detachment in Prince George.
The federal government announced last week that it will pay one-third of the $15-million cost of moving the Vancouver Police Department's Main Street station with the City of Vancouver covering the remaining $10 million.
The City of Prince George, meanwhile, is working out the details for building a new RCMP detachment at Fourth and Victoria. At last count it will cost $45 million and if it goes ahead the local taxpayer will pay the entire bill in all likelihood.
"It is extremely frustrating for me to see the challenges that we're facing and realize that there are no programs that fit us," Rogers said.
The $5 million Vancouver secured came from the infrastructure stimulus program. Prince George did land $15 million from the federal and provincial governments for the $28-million Boundary Road project through a subprogram aimed at communities under 100,000 people.
However, municipal buildings like police stations and fire halls do not qualify for funding through the program for smaller communities but do so for the main program aimed at Canada's big cities.
Prince George did not bother to apply for infrastructure funding from either program for the RCMP detachment because officials from Victoria and Ottawa made it clear it would not be approved. "I was reminded several times it would not qualify," Rogers said.
For Rogers, the news reinforces his assertion that application-based infrastructure programs should be replaced with a direct flow of funds to municipalities similar to the way they receive a share of revenue from the federal excise tax on gasoline. Prince George is expected to receive $2.9 million in gas tax revenue from Ottawa in 2010 that can be spent on a wider range of items.
"We can have some assurances we have money flowing, it can be assigned in a responsible way to our priorities," Rogers said of the advantages of direct-flow funding. "But when you have application-based programs that are subject to the whim of politicians and every community is competing against each other, we chase for awhile a program that might exist and then it changes to a different program."
Rogers maintains hope a program will emerge to help offset the city's cost before construction begins on a new RCMP building. With the design drawings for the project 90-per-cent complete a group of council members is working with staff to find ways to reduce the bill further.
Borrowing bylaws totaling $24 million have already been approved but that still leaves the city up to $21 million short and before such bylaws can be passed council must seek the public's consent.
Typically, that process begins with a 30-day counter-petition process, also known as a "negative vote" because it requires 10 per cent of the city's electorate to sign petitions against the proposal to force a full-blown referendum on the issue.
mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
