No one could be blamed for wanting to scream “go to your rooms” at some local council meetings across B.C.
Seven of eight Nanaimo city councillors want their mayor, Bill McKay, to quit. Last month, Grand Forks council went to court to force a councillor out. They lost. Greenwood residents tried it last year. Their petition was stayed by the court, but they’re not deterred.
Courts should be the last refuge of citizens or councils wanting to overturn election results. Judges are reluctant to do so and it takes more than a dysfunctional personality type to persuade them otherwise.
The problem with some councils is transparency, period. When most communities in B.C. have more in-camera meetings than the City of Toronto, there’s a problem.
In Ontario, councils are entitled to go in camera to consider six specific matters.According to the Union of B.C. Municipalities, there are four reasons that councils must go in camera and over a dozen reasons why they “may” close a meeting. The nuance between “may” and “must” seems to have been lost on a few.
Fighting freedom of information requests tooth and nail seems to be standard operating procedure at most city halls.
In February, a B.C. Supreme Court judge took the unusual step of rebuking the City of Vancouver over its handling of such requests, noting that the city could have possibly averted a “needless” 12-day defamation lawsuit. The city won the lawsuit, but in a telling move the judge didn’t award the city costs.
Then there’s the “nope, not our responsibility” syndrome that stretches right up to the Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Peter Fassbender. Fassbender replied to a citizen’s complaint last month with: “The ministry does not intervene in the daily functions of a local government. … If you believe that the town has failed to comply with provincial legislation, or has otherwise acted outside of its authority, you may wish to seek legal counsel to determine any potential remedies.”
That’s nice. It falls on citizens to retain legal counsel to enforce provincial legislation.
Maybe one day the B.C. government will get around to fixing the Community Charter as it applies to conflict-of-interest rules, but in the meantime councillors could follow a simple one: when in doubt, step out.
And if the government ever did decide to accept its constitutional responsibility over local governments, it could start by establishing provincewide policies on everything from councillor salaries to transparency.
It would save everyone a lot of grief.
Dermod Travis is the executive director of Integrity B.C.
