The way local government elections are conducted will have an overhaul before the next round of elections in 2011, Community and Rural Development Minister Ben Stewart has announced.
Stewart made the announcement last week that he will introduce legislation to implement all 31 of the recommendations for change brought forward by the local government elections task force.
Key recommendations from the task force included placing expense limits on local election campaign participants, requiring registration and disclosure by third party advertisers, requiring sponsorship information on all election advertising, making campaign finance disclosure statements available sooner and in an electronically searchable form, changing local government terms from three years to four, establishing a key role for Elections BC in enforcement of local campaign finance rules and establishing a separate act for local campaign finance rules.
Premier Gordon Campbell announced the creation of the task force at the 2009 Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention after UBCM members lobbied the province for several years.
Gibsons Mayor and UBCM director Barry Janyk welcomed Stewart's announcement.
"On the whole, I'm very satisfied that they are doing this, and there's no surprise here at all. I'm very grateful for Minister Stewart proceeding this way. This makes a lot of sense," Janyk said.
Gibsons council passed a motion in 2009 to undertake its own review of elections after problems with vote counting in the 2008 election led to a Supreme Court challenge of the election results and accusations of shady campaign financing emerged.
Janyk said the details of what the new rules will be have yet to be worked out, but UBCM directors will be involved in making the final recommendations to the province before a bill is introduced to the legislature in the spring of 2011. Janyk said the changes, whatever they may be, will be a benefit to all.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the changes enacted before the next local government elections to make it fair for everyone. I think it's about time," Janyk said.
