Published Articles

Task Force Only a First Step (in Business Vancouver Island)

The Report of the Local Government Elections Task Force released at the end of May contained 31 recommendations on how to improve local elections. The task force mandate covered a broad range of election issues, but those related to transparency and accountability rank amongst the most important.

The report made some useful recommendations, including the required registration of third party advertisers and prohibiting advertising from unregistered parties. It also recommended a standardized approach to campaign finance disclosure and online public access to those statements. It even went a step further and recommended that non-election referendums, such as borrowing bylaws and boundary extensions that can have considerable influence on public process, be subject to the same third party advertising rules.

These recommendations are clearly designed to bring more openness and consistency to the local election process and, if implemented, will likely produce an improved elections system.

However the task force did not look at improving the governance system once individuals are elected to office.  While the issues of transparency and accountability are important during the election process, they are equally as important afterwards. Once the council is in office, the same scrutiny on issues of accountability and transparency on the municipal taxing process is absent.

Businesses have long been concerned about ever-increasing municipal taxes, and thus have been advocating for the reinstatement of the business vote as a means of having some say in the election of municipal officials. And though the Task Force examined reinstating the vote, the recommendation made was not to do do, but rather to explore “non-electoral approaches to addressing the concerns of business.” 

The Chamber is certainly in support of such non-electoral approaches.  We have advocated on a number of these issues to the provincial government. Some policy suggestions made by the Victoria Chamber include the introduction of a clear and consistent reporting system to taxpayers that would outline the total cost of municipal taxes, fees and levies in a way that is comparable across municipalities. We are also in support of a provincially appointed municipal auditor general responsible for reviewing municipal taxation and reporting on the use of tax dollars. Having this type of oversight is likely to result in more sober second thought about unhampered tax increases and spending at the municipal level.

Scrutinizing our government processes is a good action and the report on the Local Government Elections Task Force is a positive step to improving our process. We hope it is a first step and that the provincial government will follow it up with more scrutiny of the system post-elections.

Articles - 2010

Articles - 2009