After pushing to make municipal issues a top priority in the recent federal election campaign, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities now has to push for those promises to become actions, according to a Prince George councillor who is on the group's board of directors.
Coun. Garth Frizzell is in Ottawa this week for the FCM's annual meeting where local government officials typically spend the week advocating on Parliament Hill.
But this year the board meeting falls in the relatively quiet period between the Oct. 19 election and the Dec. 3 first sitting of the House of Commons.
"Since Parliament hasn't been fully convened you have MPs who haven't got offices opened yet," said Frizzell, who did meet up with newly elected Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty on Tuesday night.
With less advocacy on the agenda, the FCM directors are reflecting on their campaign which focused on strong hometowns.
According to FCM's tracking, national party platforms made 155 references to infrastructure, 35 references to transit and 88 references to housing.
Three out of the four major parties made commitments to investing in wastewater and all four national party leaders acknowledged municipal issues.
"Now the big issue is we've got to take the promises they made about municipal priorities and weave them into action on the ground. That's what we're trying to figure out now: what our strategy is going to be to maximize the results that the different parties pledged to give to local priorities," said Frizzell.
"It's kind of an exciting time."
Also on the FCM work plan are the expected influx of Syrian refugees. The organization has put together a task force on refugee resettlement and FCM president Raymond Louie (a Vancouver councillor) met with the federal immigration minister on Tuesday.
"The minister made it clear that his government view municipalities as essential partners in any plan to settle and to successfully integrate refugees into our communities," Louie said in a statement.
Given the timing, making these kinds of preparations is a lot different than in previous years, said Frizzell.
"We're trying to help municipalities be as ready as we can but we're still in this state of the government being created as we're meeting," said Frizzell.
"They're actually putting this together while we're in Ottawa instead of how it's been every other year (when the) government has been in play already, not just formed, but it's been long established and we're trying to fit their schedule."
