Whereas professional regulatory bodies, such as CPABC, BC Law Society, APEGBC, and others, have conflict of interest and ethics rules for their members and enforce them through a complaints process; And whereas the public expects elected representatives to be held to a professional standard of conduct; And whereas the only remedy for a citizen complaint of a municipal elected persons conflict of interest is through a judgement of the Supreme Court of British Columbia: Therefore be it resolved that the Province of British Columbia consider a mechanism including to resolve and remedy conflict of interest complaints through a non-partisan Municipal Conflict of Interest Commissioner or expansion of the scope of powers of the BC Conflict of Interest Commissioner.
Ministry of Municipal Affairs Housing The Province understands that in order to maintain strong public confidence in the government and administration of local governments, persons in elected office must be, and appear to be, free of conflict and from personal interest and benefit when carrying out their duties and exercising their authorities. BCs local government legislative framework sets out ethical standards for elected officials respecting matters such as conflict of interest. If elected officials are found to have contravened certain requirements, they may be disqualified from holding office. As conflict of interest often raises complex issues involving both facts and perception, and given the potential seriousness of contraventions to these rules, whether or not there is a conflict of interest is most appropriately decided by the courts. Ultimately, the courts have the expertise to apply the law to the facts of a situation, and make an impartial and learned judgement, as is required by conflict of interest scenarios. The Province also supports local governments in taking actions to support the ethical and responsible conduct of elected local representatives. Within the existing legislative framework, local governments can voluntarily choose to establish their own policies to further manage responsible conduct issues. Such policies might include creating codes of conduct to establish standards of behaviour for elected officials, and other tools, such as creating a role of advisor on ethics-related matters. Ministry of Attorney General There are no plans to increase the jurisdiction of the provincial Conflict of Interest Commissioner Commissioner to include local governments. The Commissioner is an Officer of the Legislature and reports directly to the Legislative Assembly. Given that there are over 180 local governments and in excess of 1,500 local government elected officials, adding local governments to the Commissioners jurisdiction would require a major expansion in the resources of the Commissioners office. As the UBCMs 1996 policy paper on conflict of interest noted, the conflict of interest rules for provincial members contained in the Members Conflict of Interest Act are different in a number of ways from those of local government: they include perceived conflicts, allow for members to represent constituency interests, and contain further provisions respecting the activities of members of Cabinet. These specific rules do not apply to local governments, and having a single commissioner responsible for both levels of government raises the danger that the operation of conflict of interest rules between the two levels of government would become blurred in the publics mind.