The provincial ombudsperson is highlighting an investigation involving the Town of Gibsons in his annual report and offering a few new details about his office’s findings.
Jay Chalke released his 2017-18 annual report on Monday.
It shows the ombudsperson received a decade-high 8,400 complaints and enquiries in that period, 60 of them from the riding of Powell River-Sunshine Coast.
According to the report, 680 of those complaints were about local governments, mainly related to bylaw enforcement, development and zoning, and municipal fees and charges.
“This 10-year high is both positive and negative,” Chalke said. “It’s great that people know we are here to receive and investigate concerns about fair and reasonable treatment by provincial and local governments. However, it also signals that there is still lots of work to be done until public bodies in the province are treating all people fairly.”
The complaint related to Gibsons council highlighted by Chalke dates back to the summer of 2015 when, Chalke wrote, “we received a number of complaints from Gibsons, B.C. residents concerned about the approval process for a commercial development proposal… We received complaints that two members of council may have been in a conflict of interest when participating in decision making processes related to the development.”
The development in question was the George Hotel and Residences, and the subjects of the complaint were Mayor Wayne Rowe and Coun. Stafford Lumley.
The ombudsperson’s investigation didn’t wrap up until the spring of 2017 and, as reported by Coast Reporter at the time (see Coast Reporter July 21, 2017: “Questions raised after Lumley misses Winn Road closure votes”), neither Rowe nor Lumley were found to be in conflict.
The ombudsperson did, however, say a clearer legal opinion should have been sought in Lumley’s case, which was tied to a presentation he made to council before he ran for office that talked about the possible benefits to Gibsons Landing business owners of a project like the George.
“The town relied on a previous legal opinion it obtained on a different matter to determine the member shared an interest in common with other electors who had business interests in the municipality,” Chalke’s annual report says. “In addition, the town explained that the member’s presentation to council was intended to highlight the potential economic benefits to all local businesses, and his projected revenues from the approval of the development were entirely speculative.”
The annual report released Monday also said council, in a motion passed April 18, 2017, “agreed to take steps in response to these issues and accepted all of our proposed resolutions. The town also agreed in the future to direct council members to obtain independent legal advice if there is any uncertainty regarding conflict of interest.”
The motion was debated behind closed doors, which is allowed under the Community Charter for matters being investigated by the ombudsperson.
Chalke’s summary of the complaint concludes, “As we were satisfied that the Town of Gibsons took adequate steps to address the issues regarding the appearance of conflict of interest, we determined no further investigation was necessary.”
