Thoughts on creaky governance

Hope springs eternal for those who keep an eye on local government.

Dust-ups in Harrison Hot Springs and Lions Bay prompted the province to just hire two outside municipal advisers to provide them guidance.

Recent council meltdowns, with varying degrees of drama and dysfunction, garnered media attention at North Saanich, Langford, Tahsis, Kamloops and Surrey.

Other municipalities struggled with messes before the pandemic. A couple years ago controversies triggered media headlines in Qualicum Beach, Sayward, Lantzville, North Cowichan, Victoria, Saanich, and others.

It seems to many that municipal legislation is long overdue for reform. That’s critical if the province wants to help realize the provincial government agenda and to restore credibility with taxpayers. Major reforms likely promise the ‘biggest bang for the buck.’

The legislative framework for municipalities are both relatively new. While there’s been amendments along the way, the public have been patiently waiting for wholesale reform.

Briefly, here are suggestions to get the province started.

Local governments must conduct a governance review every decade.

Look no further than the MNP Governance Review Report and the 30 recommendations on the less than stellar council management of Victoria. Never mind, that council has sat on the report for 10 months without taking action. Surely we can learn from history’s lessons and try to improve how council conducts our business.

Councils must operate with a code of conduct.

Recent amendments allow for the option of bringing in a code within six months of the new council meeting. There should be certain consequences for politicians who don’t conduct themselves with civility.

Ethic commissioner offices must be established in every region and report annually.

A lot of disharmony on councils originates with personality conflicts, misunderstandings and especially with councillors who have lofty political aspirations. Issues can be headed off early with the help of a neutral third party.

It should be mandatory that councils post key public documents online.

It’s disrespectful and manipulative that any citizen should have to even search for important core documents. That would include remuneration and expense policies, financial disclosures, statements of financial information, financial reports, and the main bylaws.

It should be mandatory that municipal election candidates take a one-day course on local government and the role of councils.

This would help undecided candidates and weed out those that are likely to quit a few months after being elected.

All chairs and directors of regional governments should be elected directly.

Currently, each municipal council appoints one or more elected officials, one director for every 25,000 population (or portion thereof). For electoral areas, citizens elect one board director during general local elections. Some municipalities though, such as Victoria and Saanich, include a race on their ballot for CRD director. The results are not binding and councils make the official appointment at their first meeting.

It’s preposterous that councils are directly elected, but taxpayers are disenfranchised when it comes to regional governments.

The CRD, Capital Regional Housing and Capital Regional Health District combine to form a consolidated budget of $690 million. The consolidated operating portion, $398 million, funds a range of regional, sub-regional, and local services to over 432,000 people.

Amend and expand mandates of regional districts to include mandatory economic planning and regional transportation service delivery.

Currently, only hospital capital costs, water supply, landfill and sewerage are mandatory. Economic planning and regional transportation are left for 13 neighbourhood jurisdictions to muddle through with a patchwork approach.

Local politicians should serve a maximum of no more than two consecutive three-year terms.

This would allow for mayors and councillors to reacquaint themselves with the issues and their community. It would allow for different ideas, approaches and priorities, to allow a local government to continue to evolve. Or for some, fishing or bird watching might be in the offing.

The province should revive the best system of checks and balances for local government, the Office of the Auditor General of Local Government. Alternatively, a special unit within the Office of the Auditor General of BC could be established.

If unconvinced, take a look at the spending scandal in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District near Kamloops a couple of years ago. A $500,000 taxpayer-funded audit found that almost $200,000 in expenses weren’t properly documented.

It makes no sense to us that these imbroglios – and there are plenty – aren’t studied and fundamental structural changes made.

There’s a few recent positive changes to legislation to build on. Politicians charged with indictable offences must take a leave of absence until the charges are dealt with. Optional code of conducts were introduced, and the role of municipal advisors created.

If the province hopes to succeed with its broad agenda it must further strengthen municipal governance.

It begins with establishing long-term effective leadership in municipal affairs, in what’s generally viewed as a junior ministry. It’s clearly no longer the case.