Saturday, March 29, 2014

Building Canada Plan - BC Allocation released

The BC portion of the Building Canada Fund has now been released.  It is as follows:

British Columbia:

Base Funding - $250,000,000.00
Per Capita Funding - $839,897,436.00

Total Funding - $1,089,897,436.00

Small Community Fund (under 100,000 in population) - $108,989,743.60

As a point of interest - the Small Community Fund, as defined by Ottawa, would, in my opinion, cover the following local governments in the Interior region:

Cariboo Regional District - All Electoral Areas (12) + Member Municipalities (4)
Regional District of Fraser - Fort George - All Electoral Areas (7) + Member Municipalities (4)
Thompson - Nicola Regional District - All Electoral Areas (10) + Member Municipalities (11)

As you see above - the Small Community Fund could easily get oversubscribed considering the above 3 of the 28 Regional Districts and their infrastructure needs would easily swamp the total Small Community Fund dollars

The total funds available from the Small Community Fund would not even begin to cover the needs of all 28 Regional Districts and its' member municipalities… especially in Metro Vancouver (municipalities under 100,000) will would have infrastructure needs well into the billions and the total Small Community Fund only has $108 million available for the entire Province of BC

In my view - the Small Community Fund, just for BC, should have been restricted to municipalities smaller than 50,000 in population.  That would be extended the partnerships and many local infrastructure projects possible with local governments and the Small Community Fund so once again, a few 'bread crumbs' will be spread around for local infrastructure to make BC MP's look good… especially with the pending Federal Election in the Fall of 2015...

For more details - check out the FAQ Document here

For details on the Building Canada Fund - click here

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