New provincial rulebook for city councils could see local politicians suspended without pay

The BC government tabled a bill today to standardize conduct rules for city councils, adding a new punishment that could be used for local politicians who behave badly.

The provincial code of conduct could see mayors and councillors suspended for three months without pay.

“This bill responds to repeated requests from local governments and other interested parties… to establish a mandatory code of conduct across the province and enhance enforcement mechanisms,” Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Christine Boyle said in the BC Legislature.

Many of the potential sanctions are similar to what’s already been used in Kamloops, where Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson has been the subject of dozens of code of conduct investigations.

His salary has been cut multiple times, he has been removed from the regional district board, been required to take educational courses, sign apology letters and he was removed as city hall’s official spokesperson. Short of taking him to court over a conflict of interest finding, Kamloops city council has exhausted its options.

On April 2, minister Boyle introduced a bill that would require all local governments in the province to adhere to the same conduct rules, adding the new potential sanction.

Including the potential for cutting salaries for up to 90 days, the bill adds that a council member could be suspended from their duties, without pay, for up to 90 days. It would also require summary reports to be published, which Kamloops has done for many investigations while others, like Kelowna, are less forthcoming.

Previous municipal affairs minister Ravi Kahlon had said changes were coming to the law. Voters shouldn’t expect them to come into effect until after the 2026 municipal election.

Kamloops city council has been vocal about the need to clamp down further on poorly behaving council members, and those calls have been echoed by the Union of BC Municipalities and the province’s ombudsperson.

Since codes of conduct were introduced in 2022, they merely required local governments to consider whether to adopt one. As proposed, the new rules would still leave councils to get their own investigator.

For Kamloops, more than half-a-million dollars has been spent on investigations since July 2023, with Hamer-Jackson at the receiving end of most.