| Friday, February 12, 2021
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | Electoral reform continues to spin its wheels in Vancouver | | | | If you wanted an example of why Vancouver council is known for endless meetings and little action or focusing on things it would like to do instead of things that it can, you could look at this week’s three-hour long discussion on electoral reform.
In the 2018 election, Mayor Kennedy Stewart said that if he became mayor, “this election will be the last Vancouver civic election where we elect our local representatives using the outdated at-large voting system.”
Vancouver’s charter allows the city to create a system where individual councillors are elected for separate neighbourhoods/regions, rather than all councillors being elected on the same large ballot, and Stewart said that’s what he would pursue.
Simple, right?
But then Stewart said nobody was lobbying him to pursue electoral reform, so he wouldn’t. Other councillors still wanted to pursue electoral reform, but with systems that aren’t allowed in the Vancouver Charter — meaning it requires a change by the provincial government.
This led to a motion at Wednesday’s meeting, which had several amendments and breaks due to confusion by councillors, and the people voting for or against various parts of it constantly changing.
Eventually, a motion was passed with five councillors in favour, three opposed, and three abstaining. Here’s what was decided: - Staff will see how people feel about a system of proportional representation (which the city can’t implement).
- Staff will also see how much it would cost for a citizen’s assembly to discuss a preferred electoral system for Vancouver (one that the city may or may not be able to implement).
- Any decisions by council on endorsing an electoral system will only occur after a plebiscite in a general election (meaning in 2022 or 2026).
- Any result of a plebiscite to be considered when — or if — council makes a decision to lobby the provincial government for a specific change.
In other words, nothing was decided.
An election platform pledge by Kennedy Stewart is guaranteed to be broken.
And council has asked staff to review another big-picture idea that requires plenty of consultation that may or may not lead to anything, instead of making a decision.
It may lead to something. But given the nature of this minority council, you can be forgiven for being skeptical. | | | | | 2. TransLink | What will the $15 billion in money from Ottawa for public transit get for TransLink? The answer, like most long-term funding announcements, is still very much to be determined — electrification of the bus fleet will likely be accelerated, and it helps the Langley SkyTrain extensions but don’t start thinking of gondolas or UBC lines yet.
Read more in Global News | | | | | 3. Chilliwack | The most interesting school board byelection you’ll likely see for a while takes place Saturday in Chilliwack, with four candidates seeking to break the 3-3 deadlock on the school board. It’s less about jurisdictional issues, more about the culture wars — and it comes where the future of the current makeup of the school board is still under investigation.
Read more | | | | | | | 4. Penticton | It seems no matter where you are in B.C., you’ll find a mayor who says the town’s homeless community is rising because of people who allegedly aren’t originally from there — and that’s playing out in Penticton right now, which has the region’s largest cold weather shelter. Little wonder a “performance audit” is being called for.
Read more | | | | | 5. Victoria | Waterfront views, cars vs. bikes, cherished traditions and worries about accessibility for seniors: a lot of different Victoria touchstones are colliding together in a debate over changes to Clover Point aimed at drastically reducing its current orientation around car traffic. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, council punted a decision for another two weeks.
Read more in the Victoria News | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was forwarded to you. | | | Check out the latest headlines at cbc.ca/bc and follow our municipal affairs reporter Justin McElroy on Twitter. And if you have any questions, you might want answered in a future mailbag, drop Justin a line at metromatters@cbc.ca. | | | |