IN THE LEDGE – The high cost of downloading from B.C. govt to cities

Excerpt from Question Period in the B.C. Legislature on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025:

Peter Milobar: Well, it’s clear why the construction industry is worried about the government exempting themselves from prompt payment, I guess.

The pattern today has been very clear, and here is the interesting thing. All the examples that we have been bringing forward are under this government’s watch. In fact, municipalities and small businesses have been pleading for help from this government for years about the cost of downloading and the extra costs being put on them as small businesses.

In fact, in 2024, Kamloops actually commissioned a report to demonstrate the previous five years’ costs of downloading from government. It showed just Kamloops alone in that five-year period was $13 million.

Vancouver, we heard today, is $8 million just for the Downtown Eastside of downloading. In fact, they are trying to find $100 million in savings in their budget because municipalities aren’t allowed to just have a blank cheque and run a deficit, let alone a record deficit like this government tries to do repeatedly.

Councils across this province, small businesses across this province, are trying to draft budgets for the future year right now. They need to know the state of play. They need to know if this government intends to keep downloading more and more costs on them to try to save their own budgetary measures or not. Everybody knows that this provincial government is broke under this Premier’s watch. Municipalities know it. Small businesses know it. The BCGEU members out on the picket lines are finding that out as we speak.

So again, when will this government make it very clear to municipalities, in this budget cycle, whether they can expect more downloading costs or if this government is actually going to finally, once and for all, take their concerns seriously and not deflect the things that may or may not have happened in 2001?

Hon. Brenda Bailey: The member opposite points to our deficit, and I want to remind the member of the important work that we are doing every day to bring down costs in this government. We made a commitment that we would find $1.5 billion in savings in our first round, and we have. We have to continue to do this work, and we are doing this work very diligently. We’ve put a freeze in place in hiring in the public service. Through attrition, we already know 850 jobs. We’re continuing to do this work. All of our ministries are looking under every rock to make sure that everything that we’re spending money on is getting results.

This is deep and important work…

Interjections.

The Speaker: Shhh. Shhh. Members.

Hon. Brenda Bailey: …and we would expect the other side to support us.

Source: BC Hansard.