Saturday, November 26, 2011

Municipal Auditor-General Legislation Tabled...

As promised - BC Premier Christy Clark's government tabled a Bill to enact the new Auditor-General for Local Governments.  You can read the Bill in its' entirety here.  The legislation will be debated in the 2012 Spring Session of the BC Legislature

This past Thursday - BC Premier Christy Clark announced that Surrey would be home of the Auditor-General for Local Governments.  This is no surprise given Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts first expressed support for the idea.  See the BC Gov't press release here

Yesterday evening - debate arose on Twitter suggesting that the new Auditor-General for Local Governments could be dismissed by the hand of the BC Cabinet (Lt-Gov in Council), however after reviewing the legislation governing this post, it appears that it won't be that easy...

Firstly - an Audit Committee of:

1) accounting;
2) auditing;
3) governance of the Province;
4) local and regional governance;
5) a subject area set out in the regulations.

will be formed to make a recommendation either to appoint or remove the AG for Local Governments and the Minister (currently Ida Chong - a former Municipal Councillor herself) will be required to consult with the Union of BC Municipalities and others representing businesses, taxpayers and other local government professionals before making the appointments to the new Audit Committee

Given the wording of the legislation for the new Auditor-General for Local Governments - I'm fairly satisfied that sufficient protections exist to make the AG for Local Governments truly free... Although I was fairly critical of how this was introduced, the legislation now puts those concerns at ease...

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