Another Union of BC Municipalities whine and cheese fest is winding down, and it looks like taxpayers may escape without the provincial government promising to shovel any of our money off the back of a truck to try and please insatiable mayors. So there’s that.

I’ll leave the last words on UBCM to North Cowichan councillor Al Sebring and former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen, who – in separate news articles this week – have made compelling cases reminding cities to stick to what they are legislated to do. First, Sebring:

North Cowichan Coun. Al Sebring said municipal councils were elected to handle things like roads, sewer, land use and garbage and “we need to stick to our own knitting” and not get involved in affairs like the ALC or pipelines.

“We’re becoming a social policy activist group rather than a group of municipal politicians,” he said. “Half of this resolution group is outside our purview.”

And Owen, speaking on Vision Vancouver’s plan to spend property tax dollars to fulfill their soon-to-be-broken pledge to end homelessness by 2015 (96 days to go):

But former NPA mayor Philip Owen said that kind of spending, on both housing and food programs, is unprecedented and dangerous for the city.

“It isn’t sustainable at all,” Mr. Owen said. “They’re just jumping out. I think they’re nervous. They go on and on, taking on financial obligations that belong to other levels of government.”

The next time cities complain about provincial and federal downloading, they may want to look at what they have voluntarily taken on.