Canadian municipal leaders want the next federal government to commit resources that directly benefit communities, and are tracking the commitments party candidates make on that front.
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) rolled out its wish list last spring, titled A Roadmap for Strong Cities and Communities, which identified the key needs and issues facing local government across the country.
“We want to live and raise our families in vibrant and healthy communities,” said the online document calling for a new federal partnership to create livable, safe and environmentally sustainable communities.
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Online documents include A Roadmap for Strong Cities and Communities, which lays out the need for local economic development, improvements to make towns and cities more environmentally sustainable.
An accompanying document is an “Action Plan for a Strong Rural Canada” which highlights the particularly pressing needs of communities outside the country’s largest urban centres.
The top issue cited is the need for dedicated funding for core rural infrastructure to help smaller communities provide essential services, such as roads, water systems and broadband infrastructure that can’t be delivered by local tax revenues alone.
Other needs include more supports to expand affordable housing and a call for more investment in disaster mitigation and emergency preparedness. There has been a dramatic rise in weather-related emergencies across the country and “rural municipalities, in particular, need support… to address the most vulnerable aspects of their infrastructure, while protecting their populations,” the document says.
There are also calls for federal government to work more directly with local governments in rural Canada to attract trade and investment and calls for expanding affordable housing which, in turn, will help smaller communities both attract and retain their populations.
As the final days of the campaign loom, the push now is to get every candidate running to make municipal issues a priority, FCM president Raymond Louie stated in a recent media release.
The FCM website has developed an online “election tool kit” — found at hometownproud.fcm.ca — that includes a policy tracker on where each of the federal parties stand on municipal issues, a “candidate look-up” to see if individual candidates have signed a pledge on municipal issues, plus questions it is urging Canadians to ask of their candidates coming to the door, or all candidates debates.
