FILE PHOTO - City staff will add up the costs for issues that are typically a provincial responsibility, planning to later present it for a refund.

(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)

Kamloops council is tired of local taxpayers picking up the bill for what would otherwise be covered by the province.

Councillor Katie Neustaeter's notice of motion passed with unanimous support yesterday, Jan. 9, as the city moved to tally costs of provincial downloading over four years.

The motion said municipalities have to continually increase taxation to compensate for the financial consequences of that downloading. Once the data is compiled it will be submitted the province with a "request for remuneration or corrective policy."

"Although municipalities keep speaking about it, sometimes it means more to see it in dollars and cents," she said. "We know we're absorbing a lot of the costs and responsibilities that are provincial in nature."

Although not explicitly stated in Coun. Neustaeter's motion, the idea arose out of concerns the city has been spending more over the years on costs associated with homelessness, drug use and healthcare.

Councillor Nancy Bepple suggested it's important to distinguish between initiatives directed by province and those the city has taken on itself. Firefighters, for example, often respond to health-related calls and that's something the province never told the city it should cover to supplement paramedics.

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While the city wasn't told its fire department should be responding to more medical calls, which accounted for the vast majority of their work last year, Coun. Neustaeter questioned whether the alternative is to leave those calls unanswered if paramedics can't get there.

"It puts municipalities in an impossible position," she said. "When we say downloading it isn't necessarily something that's written in black and white, that is the whole point. It's erosion of responsibility that municipalities have to pick up and pay with tax dollars, which should be reinvested in our cities in other ways."

It's not clear how long the study could take, but staff are expected to include city expenses from 2019 to 2023.

The issue began years earlier than the Kamloops study will examine, however.

One study suggests federal and provincial support for big costs like utility upgrades to water and sewers has been degrading for years, with a massive cut to federal funds in the 1990s.

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On the issue of homelessness, both Kelowna and Kamloops appeared to be welcoming the task of taking on more responsibility. 

The bylaw departments were taking on more responsibility to not just address parking fines and other tickets, but dealing with mental health issues and encampments throughout the cities. In Kamloops, the city overhauled its entire bylaw departments, increasing the training load and the responsibility for its newly-dubbed "community service officers."

Former mayor Ken Christian told iNFOnews.ca in 2020 he wasn't concerned about whose responsibility it is to deal with social issues as the bylaw department moved to take a larger share of responsibility from police.

“The reality is, on the streets of Kamloops, businesses are suffering and customers aren’t feeling comfortable so we felt we needed to do something a little bit more,” Christian told iNFOnews.ca at the time. “Here the streets are quite animated with street affected populations. We need to do more than walk by individuals that are in distress lying on our streets. Up until now that’s been what’s happening. We want to help them get the services that they need, be they mental health interventions, public health interventions, detox interventions or, in some cases, if they’re criminal behaviour, we need police interventions.”

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It's unlikely the newly-approved Kamloops study will include law enforcement as any support for RCMP comes the federal government, but associated health-care or homelessness costs will be part of the final report.

Once the study is complete, Coun. Neustaeter said she expects councillors will bring the results to the respective ministries, seeking either reimbursement or a "corrective policy."

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