Victoria city councillors have voted to urge the Union of B.C. Municipalities to ask the province to return to three-year terms for local governments.
Council voted this past week to submit a resolution to the UBCM to be debated at this fall’s annual convention in Whistler.
Coun. Ben Isitt, who brought forward the motion at Thursday’s council meeting, said it’s about greater accountability between the public and the council.
“So I guess it’s pushing back against the trend of things becoming increasingly bureaucratized or unresponsive,” he said.
“On three-year cycles you still had a number of elected officials who would stand for election and get re-elected, so it doesn’t necessarily imply a more substantial turnover,” he said, “but it does mean that the elected officials go back to the people with greater frequency.
“I think the policies and the decisions coming out of councils based on three-year terms are more responsive to community needs.”
Isitt’s motion also suggested shorter terms of office increase accessibility for a diversity of voices — young people, mid-career workers and those with familial obligations.
“This motion is about putting us and our local government colleagues around the province on shorter leashes,” he told council Thursday.
“It’s about increasing the connection and the accountability between the public and their municipal and regional elected officials and it’s about removing barriers where possible to people who are at different stages of life.”
Isitt said at the end of the day, four years is just too long, and that with the benefit of hindsight, colleagues at the UBCM table might reconsider the decision to endorse four-year terms.
Councils were elected for three-year terms up until 2014, when the province changed it to four-year appointments. It was sold at the time as providing greater certainty in communities to move important projects forward.
Before 1990, civic elections happened every year and councillors served two-year terms, with half of the seats up for grabs each fall.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, who has said she won’t run again in October, pointed out a return to three-year terms has already been dismissed by both the UBCM and the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities.
“I also don’t support [the motion] because I think that three-year political cycles make for good politics and four-year political cycles make for good governance,” she said. “And I think we need to err on the side of good governance.”
Coun. Sharmarke Dubow agreed with Helps, adding new councillors need time to figure out the system. If this is about accountability, he said, perhaps municipalities should consider some form of recall mechanism.
Coun. Stephen Andrew suggested residents want a return to three-year terms and thought it was worth testing it at UBCM.
Isitt agreed, noting the nature of the UBCM is that issues come up a number of times and that over time ideas will shift.
“I would anticipate that if this issue does return to UBCM as a result of our council sending it there, I would suspect there would be greater support for the resolution than there was the last time,” he said.
