B.C. groups submit wish lists to Ottawa worth many millions
B.C. groups are trying to paint an inspirational vision of the province's future as they stretch their open hands toward the nation's capital in anticipation of Budget 2017.
From the Vancouver Art Gallery to the province's top universities, the collective “ask” is totalling well into the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to submissions filed this autumn with the House of Commons finance committee.
And that doesn't include behindthe-scenes efforts by the province and cities trying to influence distribution of the next multibilliondollar wave of federal infrastructure spending.)
In many cases the proposals to finance committee MPs aim to appeal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's 2015 election campaign positioning that he is a major supporter of science, the arts, the environment and aboriginal Canadians.
The appeals also appear to be geared to a PM who declared on the top of Grouse Mountain that Metro Vancouver is the window into Canada's promising future.
Scrambling to get to the front of the line is the Vancouver Art Gallery, which is seeking $100 million from Ottawa to fund a new downtown facility.
VAG's request was rock-bottom on the former government's priority list as Stephen Harper, who openly sneered at what he called “taxpayer-subsidized cultural elites,” sought support from “ordinary working people” outside Canada's big-city cores.
The gallery naturally assumes it has a more receptive audience given that the Liberal platform described Canada's culture sector as “a vibrant part of our economy and our national identity” in its 2015 platform.
“This project will forever change the creative and physical landscape of the city and will play a pivotal role in enhancing Vancouver, B.C. and Canada's reputation as a vibrant, creative and desirable place in which to live, work and visit,” VAG states in its bid to snatch a third of the projected $300-million capital cost.
The proposed facility, on space donated by the City of Vancouver at the corner of West Georgia and Cambie streets, will include 86,000 square feet of exhibition space or double what it has at its current location at the old Vancouver provincial courthouse. It would also include a 350-seat theatre, a 40,000-sq.-ft courtyard and four large workshops for students.
The finance committee, which continues its cross-Canada prebudget hearings in Atlantic Canada this week, held its only B.C. hearing earlier this month in Kelowna — perhaps a surprising step given the federal government’s concern over the national implications of Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis. Among the other requests:
The Port of Vancouver doesn’t name a price, but the port at the heart of Canada’s fastest-growing economy is urging Finance Minister Bill Morneau to allocate infrastructure spending “on regional opportunities with the most economic potential,” rather than spread the money equally around the country.
The University of B.C.’s TRIUMF facility, which bills itself as Canada’s “national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics,” is seeking $24.5 million from Ottawa and Victoria to fund an “Institute for Advanced Medical Isotopes,” according to its written submission. A hefty contribution from a supposedly science-friendly federal government would revive an institution that has suffered from “flat” funding levels over the previous decade, while delivering “world-class breakthroughs in science and medicine.”
The University of Victoria wants $28.5 million to create a “worldleading” program to train people in indigenous and common law, with a goal of helping indigenous Canadians “maximize … their social, political and economic growth.”
The Rick Hansen Foundation is seeking $37.6 million over five years to create an “accessibility innovation strategy.”
An organization called the Low Carbon Partnership, “encouraged by the promise of climate action” by the new government, is seeking $30 million to “help Canadian businesses drive clean growth, reduce carbon emissions and foster a prosperous green and healthy future in communities across the country,” spokesman Mike Morrice told MPs in Kelowna.
The Pacific Salmon Foundation, in addition to seeking a Salmon Conservation Stamp increase from $6 to $10 to raise $1 million, wants a $30-million injection into the Pacific Salmon Endowment Fund, which was launched with that same amount of money in 2001. Income from the foundation’s current endowment is used to fund conservation projects. “Pacific salmon are a vibrant part of the economic and socio-economic well-being of the West Coast of Canada, and integrally linked to the natural ecosystems of Pacific Canada,” states the foundation’s written brief.
The First Nations Finance Authority, which has provided $297 million in low-interest loans to First Nations governments for infrastructure and economic projects since its creation through federal legislation in 2005, is asking Ottawa to increase its capital base from $30 million to $50 million. “For every dollar that’s spent on a reserve, the economic impact is about six to 10 times for the rest of the economy,” president Ernie Daniels, who presumably noticed the 2015 Platform’s declaration that improved First Nation business activity is “vital” to the national economy, told the committee.
The First West Credit Union asked MPs to recommend that the Liberals reverse the previous government’s 2013 budget decision that removed a tax deduction for credit unions. Spokesman Ron Dau said that will cost his company $4.3 million in additional federal and provincial taxes annually.
The Vancouver Community College Faculty Association is ask- ing for an unspecified amount to deal with the 921 students on the English-language waiting list. The money is needed to “help immigrants become fluent, (so) they can contribute to this country’s economic growth,” Karen Shortt told MPs in Kelowna.
The Vancouver Airport Authority is calling on Ottawa to boost funding for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority to lower waiting times for passengers trying to get through security.
The B.C. Wine Institute is requesting an unspecified amount for a Wine Industry Innovation Program that would turn B.C.’s wine industry into a $6.6-billion business over 10 years — or more than double its current contribution to the national economy. “There are few value-added agricultural products like wine, where a handful of grapes can be converted into world-class wine, as it is here in Canada,” institute president Miles Prodan told MPs.
Teck Resources wants Canada to strike a free-trade deal with China, so the Vancouver-based mining giant can, like its Australian competitors, avoid a three per cent tariff on steelmaking coal.
Pacific salmon are a vibrant part of the economic and socio-economic well-being of the West Coast of Canada, and integrally linked to the natural ecosystems of Pacific Canada. PACIFIC SALMON ENDOWMENT FUND’S REQUEST FO R A $30-MILLION GRANT