BC Conservatives on Municipal Borrowing

Over on his blog -- Bernard von Schulmann looks at the BC Conservative policy platform regarding municipal borrowing which reads:

2.2.3. Amending current legislation so that municipalities are required to hold referenda for borrowing for capital projects and to ensure the “alternative approval process”, also known as the “counter-petition” process, is prohibited.

I wonder if the BC Conservatives even bothered to ask any currently elected municipal official(s) what the "bottom-line" impact of this policy would be to struggling local governments, like the Cities of Williams Lake & Quesnel and the Cariboo Regional District as examples

I understand the concern that the BC Conservatives are attempting to address which is municipalities using "counter-petition" to approve millions in borrowing(s) for capital needs.  I still believe counter-petition has its' place for small capital projects (ie: $50,000) but for bigger projects ($3 million or bigger), you should, at least morally, get voter assent as it is not often, at least in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, that local governments ask to borrow multiple times $3 million+ in one term of local government

Finally - Mr. von Schulmann says that local government should be permitted to run a deficit budget.  I agree with him, provided that it be restricted to emergency situations (broken water main pipe) and not to fund routine or annual expenses that are normally required for muncipal affairs (ie: police/fire)

Read the full blog post from Mr. von Schulmann here