FCM: President's Forum

The question discussed at the President’s Forum was: Are municipal governments ready to drive the national agenda?

Three points made included:

     ·         Municipal governments are closest to residents

     ·         Municipal governments make everyday decisions affecting everyone’s life

     ·         Municipal governments are not junior levels of government

FCM Crowd Attending President's Forum

Other points made about municipal governments:

     ·         Should not be a creature of the provinces but have constitutional status

     ·         More nimble to respond to issues

     ·         The big policy question is: how are resources equitably delivered?

          ·         Municipalities have 66% of infrastructure and 8% of government revenue to operate, maintain, replace and build new infrastructure (many believe a crisis is around the corner)

     ·         Municipal elected officials and administrators are under the most stress of all levels of government

Municipal governments are the most:

     ·         Transparent

     ·         Accountable

     ·         Accessible, and

     ·         Engaged