Attachment 2 - UBCM Letter regarding CARIP

May 28, 2021

Honourable Josie Osborne Minister of Municipal Affairs PO Box 9056, Stn Prov Govt Victoria BC V8W 9E2

Dear Minister Osborne,

I am writing on behalf of the UBCM Executive to express concern with the elimination of the Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program (CARIP) funding for local governments.

We have previously taken the opportunity to voice our concerns about this decision with you, Premier Horgan and senior staff in your Ministry. We also feel it is important to follow up in writing.

The UBCM Executive has received an outpouring of responses from our membership since Ministry staff informed local governments this would be the final year for CARIP. The elimination of CARIP took UBCM and our membership completely by surprise. We had not previously heard any concerns raised by the Province about the effectiveness of the Program and are still unclear as to the rationale behind this decision.

While CARIP was a modest sum of money in the scope of the Province of BC’s budget, the positive impacts of the Program were significant. The funding was used by many local governments to showcase innovative new green technologies, and provide a visible example to their communities of the value of implementing climate change actions. In other local governments, the finding was used to build staff resources and budgets to assist with local government sustainability actions. In many places, the CARIP funding was identified as seed funding and was used to leverage significant additional funding from other sources for valuable climate change projects.

We do acknowledge that a new fund of $11 million has been identified for the 2022 budget. However, the new program has not been designed beyond a reference to land use planning. UBCM was involved in the design of CARIP over ten years ago. We believe steps should be taken now to provide clarity and certainty for BC’s local governments, and the design of this new program should begin immediately. Our membership was supportive of the CARIP funding model, and we would like to see a program that builds upon these successes. UBCM is willing to participate in the design of the new program and can draw upon the expertise in our own membership as required.

Yours truly,

Brian Frenkel UBCM President

cc: Honourable George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy