Born in Hard Times: Formation of
the Department of Municipal Affairs
British Columbia's Municipalities During the
Depression
In the early 1930s, five British
Columbia (B.C.) municipalities went into
bankruptcy. Each had its own story,
but all suffered from the effects of
the Depression (the five
municipalities were: Burnaby,
Merritt, Prince Rupert and the City
and District of North Vancouver).
Burnaby, for example, was a bedroom
community whose working-class
residents commuted to Vancouver and
New Westminster for employment.
Once the Depression took root, many
of these residents lost the income
that ordinarily would have gone to
pay property taxes in Burnaby.
Moreover, in the 1930s, the responsibility for
unemployment relief rested with
municipalities. Burnaby's already thin financial
resources were stretched further as
an increasing number of its
residents sought economic relief
from the city.
In Prince Rupert, unemployment was
also a major factor in its bankruptcy. The unemployment rolls
swelled as resource workers from all
over the north coast of British Columbia fled bankrupt
resource camps and converged on what
was, for a time, the only viable
community remaining on the north
coast.
The Provincial Response
The Depression's difficult
consequences led many people to
reconsider the roles and
responsibilities of Canada's
federal, provincial and municipal
levels of government. Most
immediately, the provincial and
federal governments recognized
changes needed to be made to the
delivery of social services. But the
municipal bankruptcies also exposed
deep fault lines in B.C.'s local
government system. The Province's
initial response to the problems
local governments faced was two-fold:
-
Provincially-appointed commissioners
replaced the city councils that had
declared bankruptcy. These
commissioners had strict mandates to
renegotiate outstanding debts and eventually, return these
municipalities to a council form of
government.
-
In 1933, the Province initiated the Harper Commission
to
investigate municipal problems.
Among many other recommendations,
this commission advised the Province
to:
- improve municipal property
assessment practices and taxation
policies;
- develop new methods for municipal
borrowing;
- elevate the Inspector of
Municipalities (a one-person office
in the Attorney-General's
department) into a full department
(now ministry) of the provincial
government.
Following the
advice of the Harper Commission,
Duff Patullo's new Liberal
government established the
Department of Municipal Affairs
(DMA) in 1934 to assist the
Province's municipalities as they
dealt with the problems of the
Depression. According to the
legislation which established it,
the DMA. would be the "medium of
communication between the Province
and its municipalities". Arthur
Wells Gray, a former mayor of New
Westminster, became the first
minister. Robert Baird, who
had been the well-regarded inspector
of municipalities since 1917, was
named the first deputy minister.
The Influence of the Department
of Municipal Affairs in the 1930s
Over the course
of the 1930s, the DMA sought to
assist municipalities in developing
the tools they required for
financial viability. While the three
levels of government debated
formulas for the delivery of
unemployment relief and other social
services, the DMA focused on
building the capacity of municipal
officials to both analyze and manage
the financial affairs of their
communities. It increased its
supervisory role over municipal
borrowing, and made important
changes to the Municipal Act's
assessment provisions. In an era
before commercial plane travel, DMA
staff ventured throughout the
province by car and by train to help
municipal officials in B.C.'s small
communities.
In 1939, the Department sponsored
the first stand-alone provincial
meeting of municipal administrative
officers in Victoria. This meeting
became an annual event that fostered
the professional development of
those responsible for running the
day-to-day affairs of the Province's
municipalities. What began as
the Municipal Officers' Association (MOA)
at that time, continues to this day
as the Local Government Management
Association (LGMA).
The difficulties B.C.'s
municipalities encountered during
the Depression were not wholly
resolved by 1939. Problems stemming
from social service provision,
borrowing and property assessment
continued to vex municipal
governments until the 1970s. Provincially-appointed commissioners
continued to govern the five
bankrupt municipalities until the
1950s. The establishment of the
DMA and its efforts in the 1930s
enabled a more systematic and
rational relationship between the
Province and municipalities. Just as
important, the DMA's first staff members (many of whom came from the ranks of
municipal government administration)
established a respectful ethos
within the DMA. This ethos
included:
·
Respect for local autonomy.
·
A mutual understanding of provincial
and municipal concerns.
·
Systematized analysis of municipal
problems.
·
A collaborative approach to
problem-solving.
As the DMA has
evolved into the present-day Local
Government Department (LGD), the spirit of
respect and collaboration remains an
integral aspect of the LGD's work.
Sources/Further
Information:
Barman, Jean. The West Beyond the West, 3rd ed.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
British Columbia.
Commission on Provincial-Municipal
Relations. Provincial-Municipal
Relations in British Columbia: A
Report of the Commissioner
[Goldenberg Commission]. Victoria:
Queen's Publishers, 1948.
British Columbia.
Inspector of
Municipalities/Department of
Municipal Affairs.
Annual Reports
[1930-1940]. Victoria: Queen's
Publishers, 1930-1940.
British Columbia.
Municipal Taxation Commission. Report of the Municipal Taxation
Commission [Harper Commission].
Victoria: Queen's Publishers, 1933.
Hillhouse,
Albert. Municipal Bonds: A
Century of Experience. New York:
Prentice-Hall, 1936.
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