Inept municipal governance ignored during election

After years of moaning about local government over coffee and beer, an idea was sketched on a restaurant napkin ten years ago by a handful of concerned citizens.

There was life experience, brains, some money, a sense of humour and an undying love for The Mamas and the Papas. So, it was time to start an accountable, non-profit organization to ask questions about a byzantine and too frequently dysfunctional local government.

Our dream was to encourage improved governance and get better value for our municipal tax dollar. Our approach was to act business-like and avoid a focus on personalities. Our aim, even written into the constitution, was to somehow ‘maintain a sense of humour.’ For the most part that’s still intact (although waning after city council just mugged taxpayers on wages).

Along the way, disappointments and various accomplishments.

Expressing outrage at the CRD voting themselves a 100% pay raise a decade ago. Criticizing Victoria council for angling for a 40% pay increase and the mayor 25% in 2026. Helping to stop the last-minute hosting of an expensive Commonwealth Games. Lobbying the CRD to introduce an e-newsletter and Langford to bring in council videotaping. Championing the need for a regional transportation authority. Taking aim at the latest goofy waste of tax dollars.

Our work is just starting.  

The CRD held an alternate approval process (AAP) vote in the spring which did not meet the democratic standards required for an $85 million public expenditure for housing. In early December, the BC Supreme Court will hear our arguments calling for the bylaw to be struck down.

Now, as voters are about to head to the provincial election polls, there are imponderables.

A worrying trend is the rapid deterioration of provincial finances and the implications on local government.

The NDP government had boosted the debt of the province by $25 billion in a single year, now totaling $128 billion. Plans are to increase that to $151 billion next year and $173 billion the year after that.

There’s no end in sight to spending and no plan to pay it back.

Credit rating agencies have been downgrading the province and there’s currently two negative outlooks. Even the parliamentary budget officer has sounded alarms about the province’s deficit and debt.

Interest payments will eat up more and more of the provincial budget. This unchecked spending spree simply can’t be good for taxpayers in the long run.

The reactive rather than proactive governance of local government continues to be a major concern.

More often than not, it seems at least 10% of the 161 municipalities are in varying degrees of free fall without a parachute.

For example, Metro Vancouver taxpayers will need to back-fill the North Shore water treatment project that’s a couple years behind schedule and partly finished. The original project cost of $700 million has ballooned more than five times to a guesstimated $3.86 billion.

Accusations are flying and calls for inquiries multiplying to the horror of taxpayers and the absence of provincial involvement.

In Kamloops, there’s been various steps taken by the council against the mayor, including stripping him of his duties as a city spokesperson, removing him from the Thompson Nicola Regional District board and Shuswap Watershed Council and docking his pay by 10 per cent.

The latest effort is to move his office to the basement away from city staff, a decision following a safety audit. The mayor says he will work from home.

There was a mechanism to deal with and learn from these sort of municipal failing and it was called the Auditor General of Local Government. Although the current government closed it down, it should swallow its pride and bring back this important body.

Closer to home, the wastewater treatment project is still unfinished and costs unknown for the disposal of the toxic sludge piling up.

As local government is a creature of the province legislation, it must be kept current to allow councils and boards to manage a rapidly changing society and to build a strong, dynamic economy.

Both the Local Government Act and the Community Charter are outdated, although there have been a couple of welcome changes in recent years.

Removing mayors from a conflict of interest situation by not allowing them to chair police commissions is a slight improvement. But, there remain five police forces in our small region.

Another beneficial change disqualifies local politicians from holding office if convicted of an indictable offence. They are placed on paid leave while facing criminal investigation until the process is completed or the charges resolved.

But what’s really needed is a root-and-branch overhaul of municipal legislation – the only model of its kind in the world – to help mandarins better administer.

Lastly, relative provincial disinterest in municipal affairs continues unabated.

Most members of the public couldn’t name the minister in charge of municipal affairs, let alone the department name. In the last 25 years, the department of municipal affairs has gone through eight name changes.

Politicians of all stripes seem to want to rename a hard-to-find department, underfund its operations, and continue to operate it as a junior portfolio where ministers frequently come-and-go.

Isn’t local government the bedrock of our society and shouldn’t it be treated accordingly?

It’s hoped the new provincial government will care enough to get on with the job of reforming local government, otherwise the same old issues will just keep repeating themselves.