Langley City's Calls to Action for the Provincial Government

At the beginning of May, local government representatives from the Lower Mainland will gather in Whistler for the annual Lower Mainland Local Government Association (LMLGA) conference. One of the main parts of the conference is debating various resolutions submitted by member municipalities and regional districts.

If they receive majority support during the debates, these resolutions are submitted to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) for debate by people representing all local governments in our province at the fall UBCM conference. If supported at the UBCM annual conference, UBCM will submit them to the province for consideration.

This may seem like a lot of process, more than just writing a letter to the provincial government directly. But, the idea is that resolutions from all local governments in BC carry more weight than a letter from just one or two municipalities.

At last night's meeting, Langley City Council endorsed sending four resolutions to the LMLGA annual conference for debate.

The first resolution calls on the provincial government to implement a cost-recovery model to compensate local governments when local fire services respond to medical calls (as health care is a provincial mandate.)

The second resolution calls on the provincial government to identify and address current gaps in provincial courts, including updating the plan for court expansion projects and new locations to improve access and keep up with population growth.

The third resolution calls on the provincial government to roll out the "Belonging in BC: A collaborative plan to prevent and reduce homelessness," including funding expanding permanent shelters with associated program support to all municipalities in BC.

The fourth resolution calls on the province to provide additional funding to the local government to support the updating of Official Community Plans and Engineering Servicing Plan, as well as flagging additional requirements such as schools and hospital expansion due to the province's new legislation around housing and population growth.