 | Saturday, May 07, 2022
Reading this online? Sign up to get this delivered to your inbox every Friday. | | 'You hate me!': Council meeting in Trail descends into confusion over non-confidence motion | | |  | | | “Can we just move on until October please? Aren’t you guys getting tired of this crap?”
Council debate in the City of Trail, B.C., hasn’t been all that collegial for a while now. But last week’s meeting was particularly cantankerous.
For the last two years, the city has been a classic example of a dysfunctional local government: a mayor that can’t command a majority of votes to pass their agenda, a city manager leaving after incidents with councillors that aren’t made public, duelling code of conduct complaints, both sides accusing the other of a toxic environment.
So on one hand, it was just another in a long line of controversies when Robert Cacchioni — the councillor most at loggerheads with Mayor Lisa Pasin — called for a motion of non confidence against her.
On the other hand, most of the senior staff and the mayor herself were confused about what to do next.
There’s extensive language and legal rulings for B.C. municipalities about censuring local officials and removing them from committees. But there’s no provision in the laws governing B.C. municipalities about non-confidence votes.
Cacchioni said he simply wanted it on the record that a majority of council didn’t have confidence in the mayor. But nobody could say what would happen next, or what it meant.
All things considered, it was a fairly noticeable lack of knowledge or decorum from a fairly important municipality in the region. The 30- minute debate only ended after councillor (and former mayor and B.C. Liberal MLA) Sandy Santori, who supports Pasin, made his “crap” comment, and ended his monologue with a bit of unvarnished truth telling.
“Just pass the motion! You hate Lisa, you hate me! For the record, there it is. Let’s go! I’m hungry!”
We’re into the dog days of this four-year term for municipalities across British Columbia. Terms used to be three years long until 2014, when municipalities convinced the province that an extra year between elections would give them more time to efficiently pass policy and move their communities forward.
And that’s true in some cases.
But there are some places like Trail: a toxic dynamic has long set in, progress on any divisive issues has long since stalled, and everyone is just hungrily waiting for October. | | | Better Know A Mayoral Race: West Vancouver | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | In 2018, the election to determine West Vancouver’s mayor was one of the closest in the entire province.
And in 2022, it’s shaping up to be a rematch.
“I really don’t want to run against anybody,” said Mark Sager, who was mayor from 1990 to 1996 and is hoping for a return to office.
“I would like to see our community work more co-operatively … there is a spirit of co-operation and goodwill that has been missing.”
Of course, Sager will be running against someone — first-term mayor Mary-Ann Booth, who he lost to by just 21 votes in 2018. And much like 2018, Booth is focusing on affordability, adding more diversity and density to a community where the average selling price of a detached home last month was $3.2 million.
“We've got a number of priorities and they're all really interrelated — if you’re talking about congestion, it’s caused by the lack of diversity because no one that works here can afford to live here,” she said.
While Booth can point to new rental housing and progress on local area plans for Ambleside and Horseshoe Bay, she has also been on the losing end of some votes, with a split council and long public hearings contributing to the sense of divisiveness Sager alluded to.
To that end, Booth said a number of candidates will put their name forward for council — likely not as a political party, but as a loose coalition willing to support her agenda.
At the same time, Sager will likely get much support from the coalition that formed in 2019 around opposing a B-Line through the heart of West Vancouver. Nigel Malkin led that campaign and was planning on running for mayor, but told Metro Matters he would run for council and support Sager instead.
Sager says West Van doesn’t need a B-Line, but said the community shouldn’t be tarred with an anti-change brush.
“There’s this kind of assumption that … there are groups that are against everything and that's not my experience,” he said.
“If plans are reasonable and they fit the community image that most of us have, they will get approved.”
Sager focuses on transparency and fiscal responsibility. Booth focuses on housing and climate change.
It sets up as a clear choice for voters — and potentially one of the most interesting elections on Oct. 15.
Metro Matters will be profiling a different mayoral race across British Columbia every week leading to the Oct. 15 election. | | |  | | | 1. Policing and crime | | | Hey! We’re back! The newsletter will once again be published weekly after our two month break to explore the best of B.C.’s small towns. And during that time, mayors in B.C.’s biggest cities have been in the news quite a bit lobbying the province around issues of crime and policing. The proposal by a legislative committee to replace the RCMP with a provincial police service received mixed reviews, as did a promised study on how to combat the issue of repeat offenders in the province.
Read more | | |  | | | 3. Renters | You don’t need to be in Vancouver to feel the strain on the rental market, though it is the place where a tenants union is pushing for the right to represent tenants. Prince Rupert passed a bylaw outlining basic maintenance standards for rental units and rules around evictions. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to $50,000. Read more | | | | | |  | | | 4. Name change? | After three years of discussion and study, the decision on whether to change the name of the Haida Gwaii community to the ancestral Haida name of Daajing Giids Llnahaay may soon be approaching. A community-wide survey showed an approximate split of 60 per cent in favour and 40 per cent against, with a council meeting next week to discuss next steps.
Read more in the Terrace Standard | | | |  | | | 5. No city for you! | And finally, the vote on whether British Columbia would have a 162nd municipality wasn’t much of a debate at all: people in the communities of Blind Bay and Sorrento voted overwhelmingly to keep the status quo of being part of a regional district, rather than become their own municipality with an elected mayor and council, with fears of higher taxes playing a big part. Read more | | | | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
forwarded to you. | | | | That's it for this week! In the meantime, 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. | | | |
