Burnaby council mostly welcomes a four-year cycle, if the province follows through with its proposal to extend terms by one year for councillors and school trustees.
The B.C. government is intending to pass legislation during the current session to change local elections from three-year to four-year terms beginning with the upcoming election in November.
Coun. Dan Johnston said he supports the four-year term because the third year is usually spent in election mode.
"The third year tends to be hijacked by the political agenda as opposed to the business of the community," Johnston told the NOW. "I think an extra year will bring more continuity to the people's business."
Overall, Johnston said one more year isn't a big deal.
But, Coun. Colleen Jordan does not share that view.
Jordan said having a fourth year added to her term could impact her decision to run.
"It makes it a harder decision to run," she added. "I want to retire before a certain age."
Jordan also said the province has not done enough to consult the public.
"It'll be another four years before people are held accountable again," she noted.
Coun. Nick Volkow said the four-year term is a good idea.
"You can follow through with long-term planning decisions. See where your decisions end up," he said.
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal echoed Volkow's comments, and said he's always supported the motion when it came up at Union of B.C. Municipalities meetings. At last year's meeting, there was a majority vote supporting four-year terms.
"There's a benefit to new councillors," he said. "For many people who are elected for the first time there's a fair amount of a learning curve. It's overwhelming. By the time you get a hang of things in the third year it's over."
Dhaliwal said B.C. will be one of the last provinces to join the rest with four-year terms.
"That tells us it's working reasonably well," he added.
Burnaby's mayor also agrees with four-year terms, but raised his concern for rural communities that this change may impact them negatively.
"I'm worried about the outlying municipalities," Mayor Derek Corrigan said.
Corrigan said it would be best to have two sets of elections, where larger cities have four-year terms and smaller communities have two-year terms.
"This came as a surprise to me," he added. "The government usually said no, but then when it was voted on at the last UBCM the government said yes."
Corrigan said it makes the decision a bit harder, but three-year terms are not enough in a big city.
The proposed four-year term switch the only change the province is considering for future civic elections. The extended term is part of a local election reforms package, which would also move election time from November to October.
