Alternate Directors/Regional District Governance

Editorial:

Back in 1968, when the BC Legislature established Regional Districts', via legislation, to take over local governance for residents' residing in unincorporated communities' in BC under the W.A.C. Bennett provincial government -- previous to 1968, all rural matters outside municipalities were dealt with by the Provincial Cabinet (BC Government) -- it established the role of Area Director and Alternate Area Director to ensure that there was always a representative from the Electoral Area to represent the views of the residents' of that Electoral Area and this is the reason why the elected Area Director and the appointed Alternate Director (yes, unelected) are both required to take an Oath of Office including keeping confidential information private until released publicly by a Regional District Board

Section 201 of the Local Government Act is the legal authority for Alternate Directors for Electoral Area Directors' on Regional District Boards'.  Click here

The system has worked well for the last 40 years until in recent years where there were some cases where an Alternate Area Director(s) was attending more meetings than the elected Area Director(s) in some Regional Districts'.

This particular situation is where some will argue that an unelected individual should not be voting on use of public dollars, etc when there is no direct link to the electorate and did not submit themselves to the electorate in a local general election

In January 2018 -- Cariboo Regional District Area 'G' Director Al Richmond presented on this topic at the annual UBCM Electoral Area Director Forum.  View that presentation here.  Some Electoral Area Directors' in attendance were not in full support of the Committee's activities/direction

Then in July 2018 - the Ad Hoc Committee on Unelected Alternate Electoral Area Directors' tabled its recommendations on changes to the Local Government Act, in respect of Alternate Electoral Area Directors. View that here

On Feb 11/12th, 2019 - Quesnel City Council held a Strategic Planning Session.  Following that session - the following Resolution resulted:

WHEREAS the duly elected City Council of Quesnel (the “Council”) values the collegial relationship which developed over the previous term between the Council and the Northern Directors of the Cariboo Regional District;
AND WHEREAS, the Council believes that there are a number of areas in which progress needs to continue to be made in order to deliver modern effective services to the greater North Cariboo Community;
AND WHEREAS the Council believes in the values of accountability and responsibility of Elected Officials to the public who elected them;
AND WHEREAS participation at the North Cariboo Joint Planning Committee (“NCJPC”) meeting by electronic means is available if an Elected Official cannot attend the meeting;
AND WHEREAS the NCJPC is an advisory committee to the Cariboo Regional District Board; 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of Quesnel provides notice to the Cariboo Regional District Board that, effective immediately, the Council will not participate in NCJPC meetings that include Alternate Directors acting on behalf of elected Northern Directors

The above noted Resolution was communicated to CRD Chair Margo Wagner; CRD CAO John MacLean and North Cariboo Joint Committee Co-Chair (and CRD Area C Director/Vice-Chair) John Massier.  This Resolution was also publicly presented at the Feb 26th, 2019 Quesnel City Council Meeting - Click here while Director Massier responded on behalf of the Cariboo Regional District yesterday - click here

While it is true that Electoral Area Directors are compelled under the Local Government Act to appoint an Alternate Director otherwise the Regional District Board is legally required to appoint one for that Electoral Area, the Area Director is not legally required to use an Alternate Director under the terms of the Local Government Act however the option is there, if the Area Director chooses to send their Alternate Director to a Regional District Board or Committee meeting.

Like Director Massier -- I too regret that this particular issue can not be resolved at the North Cariboo Joint Committee, as I believe a discussion on this topic would be helpful to clear the air around Regional District governance....

Finally - if Quesnel City Council feels strongly (as it appears to be the case with their Alternate Director resolution from their Strategic Planning Session) about this item -- they have the option to pursue an NCLGA (North Central Local Government Association) Resolution calling for an action in relation to RD Alternate Directors and if it passes at NCLGA, then it would go on to UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities') and if it passed at UBCM, then it becomes UBCM Policy and then the UBCM Executive would need to lobby annually for that resolution via annual UBCM Advocacy Days...

If this topic finds its' way to the Cariboo RD Board table, I will raise the above points but I'm hoping cooler heads will prevail and the discussion can occur at the North Cariboo Joint Committee table....

~SF

The above noted editorial is my own opinion and not that of my elected position as Cariboo Regional District Electoral Area 'D' Director....