The North Central Local Government Association (NCLGA) has cancelled its annual general meeting and convention, which was planned to take place in Prince George May 13 to May 15.
The event was expected to attract 280 to 320 local government officials from across northern B.C., NCLGA president Lara Beckett said. But with gathering more than 50 people currently banned by B.C. public health officials due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCLGA board decided to cancel the event.
"We don't have much choice," Beckett said. "We've essentially cancelled the convention. But we do technically have to hold our AGM in the calendar year. Right now we're looking at how we can do that in an online format."
Like many non-profit organizations, the NCLGA is legally required to hold its AGM to present its financial information and elect the executives of its board of directors, she said.
If the AGM can't be held online, the NCLGA board is also looking at the possibility of holding an in-person meeting at the Union of B.C. Municipalities annual general meeting and convention in Victoria in September.
In addition to reviewing the financial documents and electing a board, the other major business conducted at the AGM is the debate of resolutions. Passing resolutions allows northern B.C. municipalities to express concerns and advocate for change collectively, and are frequently presented to higher levels of government.
The proposed resolutions that were submitted for debate will all be forwarded to the UBCM for debate at the provincial level, except those only relating to northern issues, which will be considered for future actions by the board.
"We're just forwarding all those resolutions down there, hoping that event can go forward," Beckett said.
Local governments, national issues
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has also cancelled its AGM and conference, which was scheduled to happen June 4-7 in Toronto.
FCM first vice-president Garth Frizzell said given the uncertainty, the board decided it was best to cancel the annual event that draws thousands of local government delegates from the largest cities to smallest rural municipalities.
"It was a whole series of factors, especially public safety. It was time," Frizzell said. "The AGM itself we're figuring out what that is going to look like now. (FCM) is a national-level non-profit organization. Our constitution requires we have an AGM within three months of June. We know we can't do it face-to-face."
At this point the FCM also needs to figure out how to conduct its election for the board of directors and executive, Frizzell said. Frizzell, who is also a Prince George city councillor, has put his name forward for the presidency of the organization.
Despite the challenges, the FCM is still working to support municipal leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The FCM will continue to do its advocacy," Frizzell said. "There is a lot of ways the federal government can work with municipalities."
The FCM's big city mayors council met with the deputy prime minister to raise concerns about the needs of major cities to respond, while the rural board has raised concerns by farmers that without the normal influx of temporary foreign farm workers, Canada's agricultural season could be threatened.
"There has been real challenges in downtowns all across Canada. That's been made worse by COVID-19," Frizzell said. "We need services for the homeless."
The City of Toronto has been looking at using empty hotel rooms as a temporary housing solution to get people off the streets and out of crowded homeless shelters to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said.
Municipalities are responsible for providing many essential services like fire departments, police, garbage collection, and water and sewer services, he said. If the pandemic escalates in Canada as it has in places like northern Italy and New York City, Canadian cities could be hit with serious challenges to provide those services with limited funding reserves.
"The federal, provincial governments are running operational deficits," Frizzell said. "We're not allowed to do that for day-to-day operations."
Municipalities are legally restricted to borrowing for capital projects, and even then under strict rules, he said. Municipalities aren't allowed to run deficits and have rules governing what reserve funds can be used for.
Likewise, the provincial and federal governments are taking action to offer tax deferrals or other tax relief measures that just aren't available to municipalities under the current legal framework.
"We're beating the bushes to find opportunities for relief options we've got."
