How Local Government Works

Even though local government is closest to the people, it is often the level of government least understood by the public.

In British Columbia, the rules for local government are mostly set out in the province's Local Government Act and the Community Charter. These documents are effectively the constitution for local governments. They set the rules for creating local governments, electing council members and appointing officials. They establish the authority of local government and set rules for how business is conducted. Comprehensive information on these statutes and their application can be found at the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development web site.

The Town of Oliver is a municipality incorporated under the Community Charter. It has an elected council made up of a mayor, four regular council members and two "water councillors", elected by rural residents served by the Town's water system. The concept of water councillors is unique to Oliver and Osoyoos. These positions were created upon dissolution of the South Okanagan Lands Irrigation District (SOLID) in 1989, to give the rural water customers surrounding these communities a continued voice in the operation of the local water systems

All members of council are elected for fixed 3-year terms. local general elections take place on the third Saturday of every third year. The next elections are scheduled in November of 2011, 2014, 2017 etc. 

The role of the elected council is to adopt budgets, policies, and bylaws as needed to provide services to the community. The services provided directly by the Town of Oliver are diverse, including:

• water and sewer utilities
• solid waste removal, recycling
• local roads, traffic control, street lighting, sweeping, snow removal
• amenities such as decorative lighting, banners
• municipal parks
• fire prevention and suppression
• municipal airport
• cemetery administration, planning and operation
• land use planning, regulation, building inspection
• regulatory bylaw maintenance and enforcement

In addition to serving residents of the Town itself, many of the above services are available to surrounding residents.  Fire services are sold to the Osoyoos Indian Band and to the Oliver Fire Protection District (in rural Oliver) on a fee-for service basis. Water is provided by the Town to much of the surrounding farm areas. Cemetery services are sold to rural and in-town residents.  Local roads are driven by rural and municipal residents alike.

It is evident from the above list that local government is the most visible form of government. Municipal services touch our daily lives in many ways. 

Council appoints officers (management staff), who's job, along with hired staff, contractors and consultants is to:

• provide the public with assistance in obtaining municipal services
• enact and enforce council's polices and regulatory bylaws
• conduct research and prepare options and recommendations to council
• operate the services provided under council authority
• represent council and the municipality in negotiations as required
• collect revenues needed to operate the municipality

All municipal services and facilities require funding, which can be collected through taxes and/or user fees. Some programs such as road maintenance and fire suppression are almost entirely tax funded. Cemetery services are operated with the intention to "break even" with user fees. The water and sewer utilities each break even, without subsidy from general taxation. Business licensing generates income which is used to supplement operations of the Oliver Chamber of Commerce. Most services, such as parks and recreation, use a combination of tax and user fee revenues. Without tax subsidy, these services would not be affordable by many of the people who use them.

Municipal tax revenue is derived from property taxes. There is no income tax or sales tax collected by the Town. While some portion of the annual tax bill is derived from parcel or frontage taxes, the large majority of tax revenue is based on property values. Property values are established on an annual basis by the BC Assessment Authority, which is a provincial agency independent of local government. The Town establishes its annual budget and calculates the mill rates, which when multiplied by the assessed values, will generate the required tax revenues to operate the Town. 

There is often a misconception that taxes go up when assessments rise and go down when assessments fall. In fact, when average assessed values rise or fall, the mill rates are adjusted to still collect only the amount of tax required to balance the annual budget. The only time assessed values will impact an individual tax bill is when an individual assessment rises or falls by an amount that is different from the municipal average.