Federal budget needs to work for the West
Practical steps can help the region, write Randy Goulden, Charlie Clark and Al Kemmere.
Western municipal leaders are on the front lines of economic uncertainty. Every day, we see too many people in our communities losing their livelihoods, their homes and their hopes for the future. As the governments closest to daily life, we’re eager to find solutions that build better lives.
That’s why the Federation of Canadian Municipalities — the national voice of Canada’s local governments — launched our Western Economic Solutions Taskforce (WEST). We’re municipal leaders from across Western Canada, rural and urban, and we’re leading a national conversation on how best to support our western communities. We’re bringing western municipal voices straight to Ottawa.
Right now, WEST is focused on the upcoming federal budget. Budget 2020 is an opportunity for this minority government to show it can get things done for Canadians. For Western Canada, that means taking practical steps now to ease the pressures so many of our communities face.
That’s the message we delivered to top federal decision-makers last week, during a full-day summit in Leduc County, Alta. FCM’S WEST task force met directly with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Transport Minister Marc Garneau, Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly, as well as opposition members of Parliament.
In the face of some of this country’s most complex and divisive challenges, our task force led an honest and productive conversation on how to support struggling western communities. And we brought forward three concrete recommendations for the federal government to adopt in Budget 2020.
First, this budget should create a program that supports the faster reclamation of abandoned oil and gas wells, without relieving industry of its responsibilities. This will put
Budget 2020 is an opportunity (for this minority government) to show it can get things done.
people to work in the near term, while tackling the potential environmental and safety risks these wells represent.
Second, this budget should compensate farmers for the cost of federal carbon pricing on grain drying, which would help make life more affordable for producers and their families.
And third, they should make good on the government’s commitment to create a new infrastructure fund for communities in oil and gas regions.
By moving forward on these three priorities, Budget 2020 can have a real impact in western communities. And that’s what budgets are supposed to be about.
Of course, that’s just the beginning. Beyond this upcoming budget, FCM’S WEST task force will continue to explore short-, medium- and long-term solutions — solutions for the government to adopt and solutions for communities across the country to build on. And we’ll continue to engage directly with Ottawa to ensure our western communities grow, thrive and prosper.
Building consensus and finding solutions are what municipal leaders do. It’s in our DNA. As front-line governments, Canadians expect their local leaders to deliver results — pragmatically and across partisan lines. And that’s the real strength of WEST. We are united in our resolve to bring people together, and to find real solutions that make people’s lives better.
Because every single one of us has a stake in building a strong and united Canada.
The Western Economic Solutions Taskforce was launched in the wake of the 2019 federal election to ensure the priorities of western communities are clearly heard in Ottawa.
With rural and urban municipal leaders from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, WEST is exploring a full range of economic solutions — both to fuel recommendations to the federal government and to share among municipalities from coast to coast to coast. FCM is the national voice of municipal governments, with nearly 2,000 members representing more than 90 per cent of the Canadian population.
Randy Goulden, chair of the Western Economic Solutions Taskforce (WEST) and councillor of the City of Yorkton; Charlie Clark, mayor of Saskatoon and vice-chair of WEST; and Al Kemmere, councillor of Mountain View County, president of Rural Municipalities of Alberta and vice-chair of WEST.