Local Governments by far well managed

Editorial -- 

This past Friday - Dermod Travis of Integrity-BC wrote an Op-Ed (Opinion Editorial) regarding the state of local government affairs.  Read that piece here

In the piece - he raised a number of concerns involving local governments in Grand Forks, Nanaimo, Lantzville, Lillioet, Chase, White Rock and Pouce Coupe.  Please note that there are a total of 191 local governments (municipal councils or regional district boards') in the Province of BC and Mr. Travis flagged issues with seven of them, representing just 4% of all local governments in the Province of British Columbia

He also raised a concern about a number of CAO's (Chief Administrative Officer) on the move including in Lillioet, Mission, Kitimat, Fraser Lake, Sicamous, and the Regional District of Central Kootenay (note - I have not been able to confirm the CAO move in RDCK but have for Lillioet, Mission, Kitimat, Fraser Lake and Sicamous via local media reports)

He finally called upon BC's Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development (and Cariboo-North MLA) Coralee Oakes to address the issue before things "go south"

With great respect to Mr. Travis - I don't see a real problem that speaks to the Province needing to intervene in a deep and genuine way except in the case of Lantzville, due to the legalities of no quorum as of this writing on the current Lantzville Council which Minister Oakes appropriately intervened in that case and set Lantzville Council back on track for a full seven (7) member Municipal Council later this year

Yes - the stories that Mr. Travis may appear to be of concern on the surface, but once one digs deeper into the issue, it will show that all of these cases either have to do with life changes or simple retirement in the cases of the CAO's or in the case of local governments - usually it is a case of people not willing to cooperate with each other.  And yes - these cases do, at the end of the day, sadly cost time, energy and money for not only the elected officials, but the appointed ones as well (CAO/Staff) as well as the community at large

It is my personal view that if one genuinely takes part in orientation for newly elected officials (Mayor, Councillors' or Electoral Area Director) and also in Strategic Planning Sessions - most problems resolve themselves.  For those that don't -- well managed local governments should have a Code of Conduct or Dispute Resolution process in place to deal with those rare cases where people have a fundamental difference of opinion on where the local government is going.  Bearing in mind - in one of his recent books - renowned parliamentary expert Eli Mina said in 100 Boardroom Problems and How to Solve Them - that some natural tension in our local governance systems is ok but when it crosses over to full out governance dysfunction, that is when you should sit the warring parties down and fundamentally attempt to address their issue(s) in a meaningful but respectful way.

To conclude - the issues flagged by Mr. Travis represents a mere 4% of all local governments in British Columbia today and most, if not all, will resolve themselves over time and is not, in my opinion, reflective of fundamental problems with local governance in BC today - either by virtue of the Local Government Act or Community Charter

Editor's Note - the above editorial is the opinion of Steve Forseth and is not reflective of the Cariboo Regional District Board of Directors', its' Staff and Volunteers