Kamloops doesn’t have to follow whatever recommendations a B.C. municipal auditor general makes, but if it doesn’t, it does so at its own peril, Coun. Nancy Bepple said Friday.

She said that was one of the points made by Community, Sport and Cultural Development Minister Ida Chong to the Southern Interior Local Government Association’s meeting taking place in Revelstoke.

“I do support the municipal auditor general, but there is uncertainty about how it will unfold,” Bepple said of her own view on the issue.

Chong told the civic leaders at the conference that, much as it’s expected or recommended that provincial and federal governments follow the advice of their auditor generals, so, too should municipalities.

“It’s at your peril not to follow the recommendations, but there may be reasons,” Bepple said.

Chong was one of two MLAs who attended the SILGA conference, which started Thursday and ends Saturday. Also there was NDP MLA Harry Lali, Bepple said.

“We’d changed our conference to be Thursday to Saturday, with the hope more MLAs would attend,” she said.

The association members were dealing with resolutions later Friday afternoon.

Bepple said one common thread that came through in several of those resolutions was that municipalities are having to find a way to pay for police legislation that’s passed in Victoria.

“There’s concern across the board, around funding. The underlying theme is that the provincial government is enacting legislation that comes with a cost and the municipalities are looking for funding to pay for enforcement of that legislation.”

That legislation covers everything from water to stream protection to agricultural land acts, she said.

“There’s a feeling there’s more and more municipalities are responsible for,” she said.

Bepple’s council colleague Marg Spina was acclaimed Friday as first vice-president for SILGA.