City council confirms its priority topics to raise at local governments meeting

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — City councillors hope to bring healthcare licensing, LNG permitting, the decriminalization of controlled substances and more to the top of the agenda at the upcoming annual meeting of local governments. 

In preparation for the Northern Central Local Government Association (NCLGA) annual general meeting and convention in May, Fort St. John city council has approved eight resolutions to submit for consideration. 

The event, taking place in Prince Rupert from May 12th to 15th, brings local governments and provincial officials together to discuss grassroots issues and consider resolutions submitted by all those attending. 

At the March 10th regular council meeting, the council approved eight resolutions to submit to the NCLGA on topics ranging from housing and the RCMP to healthcare and elections. 

The first resolution came from a recommendation from the Council’s Response Committee on Housing and Emergency Shelter (CRCHES) on February 24th, and requested local governments receive “additional funding streams” to tackle homelessness, such as funds from civic forfeiture and cannabis and liquor taxes. 

Civil forfeiture occurs when legal action is taken towards property, such as money, vehicles, land or housing, which is “linked to unlawful activity.” Said legal action can result in the property being seized by the government and resold. 

The second resolution discusses the process for licensing out-of-province and internationally-trained healthcare professionals, referring to it as “lengthy and inefficient.” 

It calls on the provincial government to “streamline the licensing process,” guaranteeing a “more efficient pathway for these professionals to practice and contribute to addressing the healthcare workforce shortage in the province.”

RCMP staffing and contract costs were the topic of the third resolution, which the council explained accounts for a “significant” portion of the government’s annual budget. To tackle this, the council approved a resolution requesting a method for local government to verify the accuracy of contract costs. 

The fourth resolution urges the provincial government to “streamline land-use and permitting processes by ensuring timely decision-making” to support the local resources industry. 

The city council’s fifth resolution requests increased capacity to the province’s electricity grid, ensuring “competitive industrial power rates to support industrial electrification.”

A resolution also requested the provincial government develop an “integrated natural gas value-chain and export strategy” to improve support for natural gas and LNG projects.

Decriminalization of controlled substances was also addressed by the council. The province previously made the decision to decriminalize small amounts of controlled substances to address the “harms of criminalization.”

In the council’s seventh resolution, the city government advocated for the provincial government to revisit the policy, assess its effectiveness and consider “alternative approaches that better address substance abuse and enhance community safety.”

In the city’s eighth and final resolution to the NCLGA, the city proposed an equal compensation measure for workers of both provincial and municipal elections. 

The councillors explained workers were paid differently depending on which level of government the election occurred in, and stated all workers perform “vital roles in ensuring the integrity and smooth operation of the democratic process.”

All eight resolutions were approved by council, and after minor changes were made to some with regards to wording and examples cited, were cleared for submission to the NCLGA.

Darrell Blades, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, informed the council several resolutions proposed by the city were also going to appear before the Peace River Regional District (PRRD) board of directors at the next meeting and would be duplicated in this sense. 

He also clarified however this would not be a problem at NCLGA, and the resolutions would appear as ‘co-signed’ by the City of Fort St. John and the PRRD.