Prince George city council approved two resolutions at its Monday, June 9 meeting to be forwarded to the Union of BC Municipalities for consideration at the organization’s 2025 conference being held in Victoria this September.
The UBCM is an advocacy group made up of representatives from regional districts and municipalities across British Columbia.
Each year during its annual conventions, delegates vote on resolutions that call on the UBCM to advocate on their behalf on various topics.
With a June 15 deadline for submitting resolutions, council considered three at the June 9 meeting: one brought forward by Mayor Simon Yu, one brought forward by councillors Trudy Klassen and Brian Skakun and a third forwarded by the city’s Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Relations.
The mayor’s motion builds on discussions held by the intergovernmental affairs committee earlier this year about getting the province to compensate local governments for medical calls responded to by fire and rescue services.
The draft text of motion said that agreements between municipalities and BC Emergency Health Services regarding pre-hospital medical care provided by fire and rescue services expired in 2010 and the province’s investments and staffing levels in emergency care have not kept pace with growing demand.
“Therefore be it resolved that UBCM petition the province to finalize agreements with BC municipalities as soon as possible and include a funding component to compensate local governments providing emergency medical services and pre-hospital care through their fire and rescue services for related costs including, but not limited to, medical supplies and training,” the motion said.
During the June 6 meeting, Yu said the city’s spending on medical calls is not sustainable and support is needed from the provincial and federal governments.
Coun. Garth Frizzell, the committee’s chair, said that due to time constraints they might not have been able to get the motion properly forwarded to council in time and thanked Yu for his assistance.
Coun. Cori Ramsay said that while previous similar resolutions have been considered by UBCM, this one is different enough that it’s worth submitting. She told her colleagues that with the number of resolutions being sent to the UBCM, it’s worth checking what work the organization has done previously to make sure duplicate items aren’t being submitted.
Coun. Brian Skakun said some resolutions sent to the UBCM are specific to small geographic areas rather than being province-wide concerns.
The motion passed unanimously.
At the May 26 council meeting, Klassen and Skakun gave notice that they wanted their colleagues to consider forwarding a resolution to the UBCM convention making it easier for local governments to terminate the employment of officer-level positions.
Under BC law, municipal council and regional district boards must have two officer positions: one in charge of a local government’s corporate administration and one responsible for its financial administration.
Local governments can and usually do also appoint a chief administrative officer though it is not required.
BC’s Community Charter currently states that a council must vote with a two-thirds majority of all council members, not just those present, to terminate an officer.
In a report discussing their motion, the councillors argued that there are flaws with the process.
“Council relies in part on municipal officers for information, and officers’ job security depends in part on council’s decisions,” the report said.
“Yet, section 152(2)’s two-thirds vote requirement for termination allows a minority of council members to maintain an officer, shifting governing power from the majority to a minority. This contradicts voter expectations of majority rule.”
They further argue that officers control the flow of information to a council and wield significant influence but might be incentivized to prioritize a minority of councillors who support them.
The councillors also brought up the suspension review process for these positions, saying that requiring it at the next meeting after a suspension is too short an assessment process, potentially necessitating a hasty or poorly informed decision.
Speaking at the June 9 meeting, Skakun said that most of the items considered by council are decided with a simple majority with only a few exceptions. For such important positions, he said he doesn’t think a supermajority should be required.
He clarified that he was not bringing up the item because of concerns with any city officers or officers in other municipalities.
Ramsay said this type of decision is the biggest that a council can make and having a higher threshold makes sense.
She said these decisions don’t just require a supermajority, but for all councillors to be present to make a decision that could have major consequences for the city.
Coun. Ron Polillo said he wasn’t comfortable with lowering the requirements for council to fire its only direct employee, the chief administrative officer, and that he hasn’t seen any indication that the current process isn’t working.
He added that he doesn’t think the resolution was likely to be adopted by the UBCM.
Klassen said it’s rare to have councillors missing meetings since they can call in virtually if they cannot be physically present.
She said she sees the matter as being able to represent the people who elected them.
Frizzell said he had similar thoughts to Polillo and Ramsay. In most cases, he said, the difference between a majority or supermajority is only a single vote and he agreed with Ramsay’s point about requiring attendance for major decisions like this.
Coun. Tim Bennett pointed out that the process to hire a new officer is a long and expensive one and such a decision cannot be taken lightly.
Yu offered an amendment to change the motion to instead require a majority of all council members, not just those present.
The amendment passed with Ramsay, Polillo and Bennett voting against. The amended motion was defeated with only Skakun, Yu and Klassen voting in favour.
The final UBCM resolution approved for submission continues the city’s work on human trafficking and intimate partner violence.
Last July, council approved a motion calling intimate partner violence and human trafficking an epidemic. In May, the city became the first local government to join the Human Trafficking Prevention Network of British Columbia.
This resolution, if passed, would see the UBCM call on the province to declare gender-based violence, intimate partner violence and human trafficking an epidemic and update BC’s Action plan to Combat Human Trafficking.
Council’s motion passed unanimously.
At the beginning of the June 9 meeting, Yu, Ramsay and Sampson spoke about their recent trip to a similar event, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ annual conference in trade show held this year in Ottawa.
The three elected representatives were joined by city manager Walter Babicz, director of planning and development Deanna Wasnik and manager of economic development Deklan Corstanje.
While in the nation’s capital, the PG delegation said they attended question period in the House of Commons, met with local MPs Todd Doherty and Bob Zimmer, Speaker of the House Francis Scarpaleggia, representatives of CN Rail, members of the Senate and attended educational sessions.
The mayor said he was interested to hear Prime Minister Mark Carney speak about his intent to accelerate housing and from members of a cross-border mayors group talk about working with colleagues in the United States.
