Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Municipal Election Reform moves forward..

Kelowna Capital News is reporting that Victoria is moving ahead with local government reforms as follows:


* Local government elections are held every three years in British Columbia. The next election is scheduled for Nov. 15, 2014.

* The purpose of a white paper is to indicate government's direction prior to the introduction of legislation. White papers also can serve as educational tools.

* The campaign finance rules apply to election participants including candidates, elector organizations, and third party advertisers in local elections.

* The deadline for public comment on the white paper is Oct. 23, 2013.

* A website link and email address will be provided when the white paper is released.

* The Local Government Elections Task Force received well over 10,000 written indications of opinion on the topics it reviewed and on other aspects of local elections.

Read more here and the full government press release here

While I don't take umbrage with the Ministry's moves overall on local gov't election reforms, I do take exception to delaying the move for an October election from 2014 to 2017.  There is no reason to do so now except to appease the request of UBCM.  This was an item pushed for aggressively by Williams Lake City Council Surinderpal Rathor and there is no real reason not to implement it for next year's civic elections'

- SBF

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