The 2024 B.C. budget announcement of $250 million over five years for the members of the Northwest Resource Benefits Alliance (NWRBA) was met with great enthusiasm and gratitude by municipal leaders.
Unbound by the political niceties incumbent upon those leaders, our reaction is more along the lines of ‘it’s about time.’
For at least a decade the 18 towns and villages (from Vanderhoof to Haida Gwaii) and three regional districts that make up the alliance have been lobbying Victoria for more reliable, no-strings revenue-sharing from large-scale industrial projects within the region. The argument goes that it is our communities, our infrastructure and our services that are affected by these projects and we should get a piece of the pie without having to go cap-in-hand and jump through all the hoops of the traditional paternalistic project-based grant system.
We first saw the provincial government softening on the issue when it gave the communities of the NWRBA $100 million in 2019 with the Northern Capital and Planning Grant. They followed up the next year with another $50 million.
Although these were one-time amounts, it was a good indication something more reliable and ongoing could be coming, which it now has.
The budget did not provide details of how the new money would be divvied up. The previous grants were “…distributed to local governments based on a combination of a flat amount and an adjusted per-capita amount.”
A larger share (60 per cent) went to “smaller local governments that lack economies of scale and a strong commercial or industrial tax base.”
If the funding formula holds, Prince Rupert could see $4 million annually for the next five years. While it won’t automatically solve all of the city’s woes, it is a significant amount of money, especially since it is not tied to any specific projects.
It is also a call for civic engagement. It is incumbent upon citizens to ensure the municipal government knows where our priorities lie and that this money is spent effectively and responsibly.