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By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Plastic-bag fiasco proves need for recall law for city councils

Jul 13, 2019 | 7:00 AM

DO YOU EVER WISH there was a way to throw the rascals out without waiting for the next election?

There is at the provincial level, but not municipal. Maybe it’s time for an overhaul of the municipal election system to force greater accountability at city halls around B.C.

This comes to mind as Victoria City council struggles with yet another boondoggle of its own making, the latest of many. It serves as a warning signal to other B.C. towns.

On Thursday, the B.C. Court of Appeal overturned Victoria’s plastic-bag ban, saying the City should have run it past the environment minister before putting it into force. It’s a business vs. environment question. The council’s excuse appears to be that it thought about it, but decided it didn’t have to.

Which raises the question, wouldn’t it be best, when contemplating a contentious new law, to cover all your bases?

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The court’s decision is a blessing in disguise for Kamloops City council, which is in the process of sending its own version of Victoria’s bag bylaw out for public consultation. Far from being disastrous, the court ruling gives Kamloops a template for how to make sure its bylaw doesn’t fall victim to lawsuits and negative legal decisions.

It does not, however, speak well of Victoria’s lawmakers. What will the cost to their taxpayers be of having to return to the drawing board? Meanwhile, what chaos will there be as some businesses continue to obey the bylaw and others go back to plastic? That’s on council’s shoulders.

As it happened, on Wednesday, the Victoria Times-Colonist had published an editorial about a group called Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria, which has been campaigning for legislation that would allow citizens who are unhappy with their councils to launch recall campaigns.

The editorial took exception to the idea of recalling municipal politicians. It would result in too much turnover on City councils, the editorial contended. There would be nobody left with experience, it said.

Municipal recall sounds good in theory, according to the TC, but “It could, however, have many unintended consequences, not the least of which would be the nonstop disruption of council business and the relentless campaigning by those already in office.”

The Times Colonist acknowledges the public’s unhappiness with the Victoria council. “Many people have lost faith in the people they trusted with their votes. They do not hear a voice at the council table that represents their points of view. They are disengaged. They feel councillors are chasing their own agendas and ideologies, not doing the job they were elected to do.”

Does that sound familiar?

But the TC insists recall is a bad idea. “We can’t have a system that allows the defeated to demand a rematch for every lost election. Like it or not, the municipal councillors we have today were elected fairly last fall.”

I disagree with the Times Colonist. Municipal recall, if it were implemented, would be a last resort, just as it is for MLAs. There are strict guidelines for provincial recall that prevent every Tom, Dick and Harriette from starting a recall campaign every time they disagree with a political decision.

A provincial recall petition must be signed by more than 40 per cent of eligible voters to succeed. That’s no small task. And it can’t be submitted within 18 months of an election.

Since the Recall and Initiatives Act came into being in 1995, there’s never been a successful recall petition, including one that was attempted against then-MLA Terry Lake in 2011. The signature threshold wasn’t met and the petition was never submitted.

So the contention that municipal recall would result in a revolving door at City Hall council chambers just doesn’t hold up. I can recall — no pun intended — almost no examples in Kamloops where a recall petition might have been attempted or had a chance.

Nevertheless, there’s a certain sense of security in voters having the option if a serious issue involving one or more City councillors ever does come up. And it certainly would be useful in a case like Victoria where there’s growing dissatisfaction with the performance of the council.

The idea of recall legislation for councillors probably would never come up if not for the four-year terms that came into effect in 2014. The four-year term is too long. It’s supposed to provide stability within councils but another reason was that elections are expensive, so having fewer of them obviously costs less.

An alternative to recall legislation would be to go back to two- or three-year terms. I personally think two years is two short because councils go into election mode after only a year in office, and there’s such a thing as too much democracy. Three years is a good compromise.

Another good move would be to impose term limits of two to three terms. That would ensure adequate turnover and the injection of new thinking from time to time, and avoid anyone gluing themselves to a seat at the council table for decades.

Though it disagrees with recall, the TC doesn’t have an answer of its own other than for taxpayers to “stay involved.” Staying involved does nothing to get rid of politicians who shouldn’t be there. I’m with the Grumpy Taxpayer$ on this one.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and newspaper editor. He publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.

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