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VICTORIA – Community Services Minister Ida Chong has introduced Bill 7, a series of legislative improvements, providing local governments with more flexibility for advance voting and providing greater accountability and transparency during local government elections.
“These changes will empower local governments in the year of general
local elections,” said Chong. “The legislation strengthens rules around
election campaign financing disclosure, making elections more open and
transparent, and it creates more opportunities for residents and property
owners to participate in the voting process.”
The campaign disclosure rules will be expanded to ensure that individuals or groups must disclose funds they’ve raised to support specific candidates. The legislative amendments would require all groups that organize election campaigns to keep records of donations, and to disclose the contributors if their campaigns involve $500 or more, in the same way as candidates. Currently, the individuals and groups that are not candidates or formal civic parties are not required to report these financial details.
The Local Government Statutes Amendment Act, 2008 will also allow local governments to publicly post the names of contributors, and the amounts they contributed, on their websites in the same way as Elections BC or Elections Canada. Until now, this information has only been available upon individual request at local government offices.
Changes to legislation will also allow local governments to offer
greater voting opportunities to more residents and non-resident property owners
through advance polling and by mail ballot.
“While the legislation broadly
embraces common local government interests, we also recognize that some
individual communities have diverse needs and interests, and this legislation
addresses this, too,” said Chong.
The legislation will enable an important property tax sharing agreement for communities in the Elk Valley. This builds on an existing agreement and allows Elkford, Fernie and Sparwood and the Regional District of East Kootenay to share revenues from coal-mining properties in the area. The local governments negotiated the new agreement in consultation with Elk Valley Coal Corporation and with support from the Ministry of Community Services.
“I strongly believe in this agreement and the
benefits it will bring to the Elk Valley,” said East Kootenay MLA Bill Bennett.
“These communities deserve to benefit from the extra revenue raised from local
mines. This updated agreement is vital to our area.”
Other legislative amendments tabled today include streamlining some internal government approvals to improve service delivery for local governments.
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Ministry of Community Services 250 387-4089 |
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For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca. |
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