ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT


                                                        Date: June 27, 1996


     TO:       Vancouver City Council

     FROM:     Director of Community Services, Social Planning

     SUBJECT:  Federation of Canadian Municipalities:
               Quality of Life Reporting System




     RECOMMENDATION

          THAT Council endorse the City's participation in the development
          of a "template" for the proposed Federa-tion of Canadian
          Municipalities Quality of Life Reporting System, at a cost of up
          to $5,000, to be funded through the Social Planning budget.  Any
          further support for the implementation of the system is subject
          to a report back on program details and costs.


     GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

          The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS  approval of
          the foregoing.


     COUNCIL POLICY

     There is no applicable Council policy.



     PURPOSE

     This report requests Council's support for the City's participation in
     the development of a common "template" for the proposed Federation of
     Canadian Municipalities' Quality of Life Reporting System.  Funds up
     to $5,000 are available within the Social Planning budget for Purchase
     of Outside Services.

     BACKGROUND

     Over the Fall of 1995 and Spring of this year, Vancouver has
     participated in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Social
     Policy Study.  The City initially contributed $4,500 from Contingency
     Reserve, approved September 26, 1995.  This led to a municipal
     position paper on federal cuts to social programs, and a national
     video news conference on February 29th, in which Mayor Owen
     participated. Council, on February 27th, endorsed the FCM National
     Strategy and Public Statement, and supported, in principle,
     Vancouver's participation, with other municipalities, in the
     development of a coordinated system for monitoring local social and
     economic conditions.

     On May 10th, FCM representatives met with Human Resources Development
     Minister Doug Young to request federal financial support for the
     co-ordination of a national reporting system.  The federal government
     may participate, but when or to what degree is unknown.  The municipal
     staff representatives working on the project, including Vancouver
     staff, felt it was important for municipalities to continue the
     momentum which has been established, and to do so by contributing
     financially to the development of a common "template".  As noted in
     the letter from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities attached as
     Appendix A, FCM is requesting $5,000 from interested municipalities,
     for this work.


     DISCUSSION

     The basic idea of the national Quality of Life reporting system is
     that it would consist of a relatively small number of key pieces of
     data, some of which are already nationally available and some of which
     might be commonly collected on a municipal or regional level.  To
     date, there has been no detailed discussion amongst the participating
     municipalities about what these key pieces of data would be.

     Vancouver staff think the "template" should include information from
     each of the sectors most likely to be affected by federal funding and
     policy changes, e.g., labour force data, health statistics, income
     assistance, crime statistics, education and housing information.  We
     would prefer to use, where possible, data that is already collected or
     can easily be collected, with no or little additional cost. 
     Development of the proposed reporting system also needs to include
     agreement on the interpretation of the chosen data.  Social Planning
     staff will consult with other City, Health Board and Provincial staff
     on these issues before submitting our suggestions to the other
     municipalities.



     Once there is inter-municipal agreement about the "template", it will
     be easier to determine the costs of yearly collection (if any) and the
     costs of collation and reporting, for which the Federation of Canadian
     Municipalities was to seek funding.  If the federal government does
     not participate, the FCM and participating municipalities will have to
     decide whether the proposed system merits their additional financial
     support.  We will report on the proposed "template" and the
     implementation strategy and costs, as soon as this information is
     available.  

     CONCLUSION

     Social Planning has funding up to $5,000 to support the development of
     a template for a Quality of Life Reporting System, but requests
     Council's support for the concept before proceeding.



                              *    *    *    *    *