It took a few years, but Smithers finally has the money it needs to fix its sewage plant.
And it’s perhaps a tad ironic that the entity that made the regulations and threatened to fine the town up to $6 million for the inadequate sewage treatment, was the one that came through last week with the money to bring it up to snuff.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this is just another example of the paternalistic funding system that has plagued municipalities for decades.
With no means other than property taxes and a few minor service fees to generate revenue, municipalities are traditionally reliant on senior levels of governments to fund necessary projects.
To be fair, town and city councils bear some responsibility as well. For years, to keep property taxes low — and rightfully so since we’re already taxed through the nose by said senior levels of government — municipalities neglected to save money to do ongoing replacement of infrastructure.
Saving money is now mandated by the province, which is the main reason why we’ve been seeing such high property tax increases over the past several years.
This is where we are now. Crumbling infrastructure that requires the federal and provincial governments to dole out cash like Easter candy.
It shouldn’t be that way. Most Canadians live in towns or cities. We pay federal and provincial income taxes, sales taxes, sin taxes, etc. etc.
The money they so flamboyantly ‘grant’ us for these big projects is our money and it’s time we said, “we’re adults now, dad, get off our backs.
We have recently seen some indications that senior governments are amenable to cutting the apron strings. Stephen Harper’s government brought in gas tax sharing in the 2000s.
And B.C. has just included $250 million over five years for northern municipalities in no-strings (or very few strings) attached cash in its 2024 budget. That money is a share of the revenue the province gets from the large industrial projects that affect us.
Towns and cities need more of that and less hand-holding.
Think of all the money they will save on giant novelty cheques and sending out cabinet ministers for photo opps.