Municipal politicians may face suspensions as province floats new conduct rules

New rules to manage or punish municipal politicians won’t come until next year, but the province is already floating some options including possible suspensions. 

The options so far have raised concerns, but it’s better than the current system, according to some.

“We don’t want to have a situation where somebody on council doesn’t like somebody else and complains until it comes to (a suspension),” Kamloops city councillor Dale Bass said. “It’s going to have to be set up in a way that there’s obvious, true, defendable facts that warrant a suspension.”

The municipal affairs ministry is looking for ways to standardize codes of conduct across the province, but the possibility of suspensions leaves Bass questioning whether an official would still be paid for their time out of office.

Others include a mandatory code of conduct for all municipalities, a shift from the current system which requires all councils to merely consider adopting one. If they choose to, they create them in-house.

Next, it could require third-party investigators to not only investigate a complaint but levy punishments, according to a CBC report.

The current model in Kamloops, which likely has more experience than any other city with codes of conduct this term, has an investigator recommend punishments for the mayor or council. It’s up to council to decide what to do.

BC is behind other provinces in adopting codes of conduct, while Quebec has the most robust system, not only requiring mandatory, province-wide codes of conduct, a provincial commissioner will oversee complaints and investigations. It’s something BC municipal affairs critic, MLA Tony Luck, suggested should happen here as well.

Bass said the adoption of a provincial commissioner raises new red flags as provincial party politics appear to encroach on local elections.

“I know it’s a bureaucracy, but we’re going to really have to watch for partisanship there,” she said.

For another Kamloops councillor, he worries it may not go far enough.

“There needs to be a template that deals with dysfunction. If that means you need a third-party investigator or integrity commissioner, that’s fine, but it needs to have some teeth,” Kelly Hall said. “It can’t be something municipalities are left dancing around paying tremendous amounts of legal bills because of the inefficiencies of what’s being proposed.”

Kamloops has experienced the wider issue of poor conduct on city council with a dysfunctional mayor often battling council or city staff. Former municipal affairs minister Ravi Kahlon said it “undermines public trust” and it “cannot continue.”

Dozens of conduct investigations have largely been directed at Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson. The few that found wrongdoing have ended with docked pay and requests for the mayor to take courses on municipal law, which he hasn’t done, and some investigations have found he broke the Community Charter or privacy law as well as the code of conduct.

The BC model to manage council conduct was only implemented in 2022 and it’s expected to be updated after the 2026 election. At the Union of BC Municipalities conference in Victoria this week, cities representatives provided the province with feedback and suggestions on how to improve the system.