Ombudsperson calls for B.C. laws on municipal council oversight

British Columbia's ombudsperson has written to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs asking for provincewide legislation that would ensure, and enforce, ethics and integrity oversight for municipal councils.

"What we've seen so far has not reassured me that these locally created [oversight] schemes are going to be successful in the province and that's why I'm calling on the province to establish a provincewide scheme," said Jay Chalke in an interview with CBC News on Wednesday.

As ombudsperson, Chalke is responsible for investigating complaints about public sector organizations. The ombudsperson does not investigate complaints about elected officials. 

But in this case, he's using his position to highlight conflict between elected officials in several municipalities across the province, which has been defined by infighting, acrimony and misunderstandings over the roles and responsibilities of elected officials like mayors and councillors.

He's concerned that councils are easily able to amend municipal bylaws around integrity commissioners or codes of conducts that are meant to provide oversight for their actions

The latest prominent municipal controversy comes from Vancouver city council, which in September will consider a motion that would suspend the work of its integrity commissioner in order to review her role, work and mandate.

"That's a real gross overreaction," said Chalke about the proposal to pause Lisa Southern's work, potentially for months, in order to better define it.

In her 2023 annual report, Southern said her role in providing oversight of council and advisory board members "is not always clear," and she asked for amendments to the city's code of conduct bylaw.

In August, council considered a motion to accomplish this, but it was put on hold until late September.

The ruling ABC Party said the review and suspension would be reasonable, while those against, such as Green Party Coun. Pete Fry, said the move would have a chilling effect on democracy.

Chalke is condemning the motion as well.

"There's absolutely no reason why, pending that review, the right of citizens and other councillors and other people to make a complaint ought to be hoisted," he said.

New Brunswick commission

For years, the province has mostly taken what Chalke calls a "soft" approach to having councils put in place these types of bylaws.

The province doesn't have the power to force municipalities to enact codes of conduct or appoint integrity commissioners, but does have laws with a requirement to "consider," a code of conduct.

Chalke is the latest person to publicly state or ask the province to make changes. Chalke, in particular, is asking B.C. to follow New Brunswick, which last June instituted a local governance commission.

Independent and arms-length from municipalities, the commission can investigate several matters including code of conduct complaints.

B.C.'s Ministry of Municipal Affairs says it has received a letter from Chalke and is reviewing his recommendations.

"The province is monitoring and evaluating the current responsible conduct tools with our local government partners to determine what further enhancements and tools for local government that may be necessary to support responsible conduct," it said in a statement.