A small-business advocacy group has ranked the City of Prince George near the bottom in a comparison of the province's 20 largest municipalities on their ability to contain spending.
According to a report the Canadian Federation of Independent Business released last week, the municipality's per capita spending on operation grew 31.6 per cent from 2005 to 2015, adjusted for inflation, the fifth-largest jump in the category.
But Coun. Garth Frizzell, who chairs the city's finance and audit committee, said the study is flawed, noting it was prepared before the figures from the 2015 census were released earlier this year.
While the CFIB's findings were based on a trend of declining population, as estimated by B.C. Stats, Frizzell said the census showed the city's population actually grew when compared to the 2010 total.
"If our population had been going lower and our costs going up, that would have possibly explained their cause for concern but in fact our population actually went up 2,000 with the last federal census," Frizzell said.
Even so, the city's spending growth far exceeded the limit of inflation plus population growth CFIB says municipalities should meet.
According to the report, the cost of living in Prince George rose by 13 per cent between 2010 and 2015 while census figures showed a 2.8 per cent growth in the city's population for 15.8 per cent.
From 2005 to 2015, operational spending rose from $88.5 million to $128.1 million. Adjusted for inflation, spending in 2015 worked out to $113.2 million, according to CFIB calculations, a 28-per- cent jump and well above the city's population growth over that time.
Frizzell questioned the fairness of the CFIB's metric. He said the CFIB is relying on a measure of inflation as applied to a basket of consumer goods like pork and trying to apply that to the cost of running a swimming pool or clearing snow.
He characterized it as a blunt instrument that fails to take into account the unique challenges Prince George faces. "One year we raised the taxes a full seven per cent and we did that because four per cent was just for roads,"
He said the CFIB should be looking at out-of-control spending on needless things, "and that just hasn't happened."
Only seven municipalities met the CFIB's threshold according to the report.
"No major municipal government with over 25,000 residents made the list," the CFIB said.
Prince George was also among the four cities the CFIB singled out over wage increases.
From 2005 to 2016, pay for a typical inside worker represented by Canadian Union of Public Employees rose 29 per cent, while a captain at Prince George Fire Rescue saw a 44 per cent jump and an RCMP first-class constable saw a 26 per cent rise.
But Frizzell noted Prince George did a little better than Kelowna, Victoria and Vancouver in its settlement with CUPE. By two percentage points, Prince George fared slightly worse than the other three while wage increases for police were about half those seen in Vancouver and Victoria.
As a regional hub, Frizzell said the city needs a large police force.
Frizzell also noted the city imposes a lesser property tax burden on businesses than many other municipalities.
"If you compare us to any other municipality in B.C., it's a really good environment to set up your business here," Frizzell said.
Businesses in Prince George pay 2.23 times the residential rate, a multiple among the lowest in the province for communities of similar size and larger.
