Each quarter GFOABC will pose a short survey to the membership. The results will be made available after the quarter closes. Do you have a question?
Thursday, October 17, 2024
The latest quarterly question sought to better understand the use of water Meters in local governments. The impetus for this topic came from the GFOABC Online forum. In May 2024, several members discussed policies related to user Fees for property ow…
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Thursday, October 17, 2024
Current Quarterly Question:
Local Government Fire Services
Please take the time to complete this survey.
Visit past survey results.
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Friday, June 28, 2024
The latest quarterly question asked local governments about their approach To flexible work arrangements and incentives or perks for attraction and Retention of staff. More than half of all BC local governments responded to the survey. The responses …
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Friday, April 5, 2024
Inflationary Pressures
In the December issue of Dollars & Sense Perspective, we conducted a survey on how inflationary pressures are affecting budgets in local governments across British Columbia. Specifically, we asked about contingency percent…
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Wednesday, December 20, 2023
In the September issue of Dollars & Sense Perspective GFOABC and CivicInfo BC initiated a survey on Finance Department staffing in local governments across BC. The results revealed a host of challenges and intriguing trends. The survey had a robu…
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Monday, August 28, 2023
Earlier this year, the Province allocated $1 billion in grants to local governments through the Growing Communities Fund.
In this Quarterly Question, we surveyed local governments about their plans for allocating the Growing Communities Fund grant. A…
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Monday, June 26, 2023
Civic Info Polled Local Governments Across British Columbia on the Topic of Short-Term Rental Regulations, Receiving Responses from 30 Per Cent of British Columbia Local Governments.
The results revealed that regulations pertaining to short-term rent…
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Saturday, March 25, 2023
We asked local governments across BC about how they handle utility billing. We had 26% of BC local governments report on their practice. The summary below reflects those responses.
Discounts offered for prompt payment of Utility Bills:
31% of local…
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Thursday, September 29, 2022
What does travel and training look like in BC local government? You responded and the results present a varied approach.
We asked you about per diems, travel, tipping and training budgets.
PER DIEM RATES REPORTED:
Tipping?
82% of local governments …
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Friday, June 24, 2022
We asked local governments how they manage delinquent taxes and properties subject to tax sale.
The results are in with nearly 50% of municipalities responding.
We asked when a property’s unpaid tax becomes delinquent and subject to tax sale, when do…
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Monday, March 28, 2022
We asked local governments about their local government’s policing.
Out of 161 local governments in BC, 80 have a population under 5,000 and therefore do not have to contribute to policing costs. Of the remaining 81 municipalities, 11 have a municipa…
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Friday, December 17, 2021
We asked local governments about their financial software and 84 BC Local Governments responded.
Local Governments reported that Vadim is the most widely used primary financial software with nearly 50% using the program as their primary financial so…
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Wednesday, December 1, 2021
We asked local governments about EV charging stations. Specifically, do you have them and what do you charge?
The survey yielded results from 26% of BC local governments. Of the local governments that responded, nearly 70% currently operate EV chargi…
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Wednesday, September 1, 2021
The June 2021 Quarterly Question explored how local governments use purchasing and corporate cards for their purchasing needs. 39% of BC local governments responded to this survey. All but one of the 73 respondents reported using either purchasing ca…
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Thursday, July 1, 2021
Prior to COVID-19, two thirds of municipalities reported 2019 property tax increases that exceeded those in 2018.
For many communities, the pandemic brought economic uncertainty. In early 2020, many municipalities adjusted tax rates and tax collectio…
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Thursday, March 25, 2021
The diverse group of local governments that returned this survey gave a snapshot of how this pandemic fast-tracked change and technological transformation in the sector.
The initial lockdown brought about a number of challenges. For the majority of r…
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Thursday, September 24, 2020
Despite some early grim predictions on property tax collection, BC local governments have reported collecting most property tax revenue receivables as of October 2020. With 36% of municipal governments reporting, the average collection rate was 92% w…
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Tuesday, March 31, 2020
We received responses to this question from close to half of all BC local governments of varying populations and geographical locations. Credit cards are accepted by 53% of local government respondents. One third of these local governments accept cre…
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Monday, March 16, 2020
We received responses from local governments of varying populations from across the province from the City of Vancouver to the Village of Lytton. It appears that charging for folio listings requested by mortgage companies is practiced by most local g…
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Sunday, December 1, 2019
We received responses from nearly 50% of all local governments of varying populations from across the province. Most variation in the responses can be attributed to volume of transactions, i.e., more transactions increased the incidence of receiving…
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Monday, September 16, 2019
Thank you to Mark Coulter from the City of Campbell River who used the GFOABC Forum to ask for help comparing property taxes across BC, breaking down how other local governments charge for services like water, sewer and garbage.
To get the answer, Ci…
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Thursday, June 6, 2019
Thank you to Sheena Moore of Revelstoke for the online forum post that prompted the quarterly question on staffing levels of local government finance departments. A special thank you to Chris Calder of Regional District of Fraser-Fort George for prov…
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Monday, March 18, 2019
Our most recent question on elected official remuneration was prompted after the recent election. The survey was presented to the membership December 7th and received 27 unique responses upon closing February 28.
The results are as follows:
Click t…
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Friday, December 7, 2018
Our most recent question on local government software was prompted after several major changes in the industry. The survey was presented to the membership October 1st and received 65 unique responses upon closing November 30th.
The results are as fo…
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Monday, September 17, 2018
Thank you to the District of Metchosin for requesting GFOABC survey the membership on their per diem rates. As a result of this survey our strategic partner CivicInfo is considering including per diems in their annual survey to be shared with local g…
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