LOCAL ELECTIONS TASK FORCE DELIVERS RECOMMENDATIONS

VICTORIA – The Local Government Elections Task Force has delivered its final report, announced co-chairs Community and Rural Development Minister Bill Bennett, and Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) president Harry Nyce. The report contains 31 recommendations to improve local government elections. To view the task force’s final report, go to www.localelectionstaskforce.gov.bc.ca.

Some of the 31 Recommendations:

• Term of office: Extend the term of office for local elected officials to four years
• Campaign finance disclosure: Recommendations: Require campaign finance disclosure statements to be submitted no later than 90 days after general voting day. Require campaign finance disclosure information to be published online and made centrally accessible though Elections BC. Develop standard campaign finance disclosure statement forms
• Election advertising: Ban anonymous contributions

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May 31, 2010 1:19 PM Tom Fletcher - BC Local News B.C. task force eyes four-year council terms, spending caps

VICTORIA – A task force on local elections has recommended tighter spending rules for candidates, and a four-year term of office for those elected to municipal councils and school boards. The task force of councillors and B.C. Liberal MLAs decided not to place limits on campaign contributions by individuals, businesses and unions. Requiring disclosure of all donations and placing limits on candidate spending is sufficient to allow voters to make up their minds, said Community and Rural Development Minister Bill Bennett, co-chair of the task force. The task force also recommended against giving businesses a vote in local elections. Some coastal communities have seen an industrial tax revolt led by Catalyst Paper, which unsuccessfully argued in court that local councils have loaded too much of the local tax burden on their mills.

Bennett said another task force is looking at the imbalance between residential and business taxes in some communities, but the principle of one person, one vote was deemed more important than businesses being taxed without representation. "You look around the world and you see that there is no corporate or business vote anywhere in the world, except for downtown London, England, and nobody lives in downtown London, England," Bennett said.

NDP community development critic Scott Fraser said the B.C. Liberals didn't want to impose limits on campaign contributions at the municipal level, because they have refused to do so provincially. Corporate donations have put the B.C. Liberal Party far ahead of the NDP in campaign money collected in recent years, and NDP leader Carole James has repeatedly called for a ban on corporate and union donations to provincial parties. "CUPE [the union that represents municipal workers], the teachers' federation, respected academics and the public have all called for caps on donor contributions, so arguably that omission looks like there was political bias involved," Fraser said.

Fraser, a former mayor of Tofino, said he supports the idea of extending municipal terms from three to four years. It takes a new mayor a year to "get up to speed" and that leaves little time to enact policy before preparations begin for another election, he said. Bennett said the task force recommendations will go to cabinet, and he hopes legislation can be passed to implement them before local elections come around again in November 2011.