Four Year Terms? You Say No
Prince George, B.C.- Just eight months before local elections take place, and this time, the candidates will be vying for a post that they will hold for four years.
The Province is going to extend the municipal terms to four years. It’s a move the Province says the Union of BC Municipalities wants, and it was recommended by the Local Government Elections Task Force.
But what do you think?
Do you support four year terms for municipal government?
According to our latest poll, the answer is a resounding, no.
The poll results show 80.6% (837 vote) saying no to four year terms,
While 19.4% (202 votes) say yes.
IntegrityBC notes that while the UBCM and BC School Trustees are stakeholders on the issue “They are not the only stakeholders” says a release from Integrity B.C.
Integrity BC says the Province is doing a flip-flop on the issue “By releasing its White Paper stating that the term of office was not going to be extended and then doing exactly that, six months later, the government effectively excluded the most important stakeholder of all – the public.”
“It may come as a shock to the government, but generally speaking the public is not enamored with politicians at the moment and they deserved to have their say on this issue,” said IntegrityBC executive director Dermod Travis. “To have this done in the dark of night with a stroke of the pen stripped them of that right.”
According to Integrity BC, “the only thing that seems to have changed between the release of the government's White Paper in September and the government's change of heart in February, is the vote of less than 1,950 local politicians at the UBCM convention that took place last September.” It was that vote that approved the motion calling on the Province to increase terms to 4 years.
Comments
another example of political people doing things for their political friends (hoping there will be political backing in the future). regardless what the rest of the world thinks about it.
DICTATORSHIP ACTIVITIES?
Not enamoured with politicians… Lol
We can’t trust them , hate them, despise them and they just don’t get it, they lie to get in, then spend our money like crazy, don’t listen to the voters, go on not needed trips and still wonder why we hate them.
Just means that the majority is wrong, like usual. LOL
Nuther one of those Liberal flip flops!
Say one thing, do the other!
They claim that it would save money, imagine! As if they had ever worried about a measly 100k or so!
What is the real agenda?
They have been shown how to save 100k annually in perpetuity, but they already dismissed the repeated suggestions for many years.
If a politician ever campaigned on reality and the truth, they’d never get elected.
It saves the 10-15% of voters who vote in municipal elections the need to go in every 3 years. I really can’t see an issue with this if the electorate isn’t willing to show up and vote on election day. I’m sure most of the people on here that complain about mayor and council do so because they vote on election day. I think it’s more important to vote in the local stuff. It’s where your money has the biggest chance of being spent wrong.
The Government and politicans in general, have no respect for the average citizen.
They up taxes, and build projects that suit them and their vested interest buddies, and totally disregard the wants and needs of taxpayers.
They always use health care, education, etc; as the reason for the need for all the money they collect, however that is only partially true.
We know that the Prime Minister, Premier, or the local Mayor and City Managers, and a few councilors basically call the shots, and the back benchers, and some councilors are nothing more than window dressing.
We have three MLA’s in this area, and we are getting diddly squat from the Province. We have two MP’s and we get diddly squat.
We have a Mayor and Council who are hell bent to drive us into the poor house with tax and service increases, without any actual improvement is service, plus wanting to build a PAC for some $52 Million while at the same time telling us that we have a serious infrastructure problem than has to be solved. Hmmmmm.
What we have in this Province/City is taxation without representation. We have a very small group of people at City Hall, and in Victoria, that cause us all kinds of grieve.
We need some serious changes, and we need them fast. Hopefully it will start with the civic election this fall, and go forward from there.
One thing we can do, is to ensure that some of the elected people at City Hall do not get a four year term. In fact we can make this their last term.
No kidding JB – here is my election platform: “I have heard the people, and the people want good roads, good sidewalks, good snow removal and good infastructure. I will bring all of these to the forefront, we will start replacing oldest to newest from one end of the city to the other until it is done within ten years. Oh, btw, your taxes will double to pay for this”
I wonder how many votes I will get?
Actually interceptor, if you add – I won’t vote for a PAC, I won’t travel to China, in fact I won’t travel anywhere, I’d vote for you. I don’t mind paying double taxes, if that’s what it takes, as long as it’s for the common good.
The only positive I see is for the ones who bribe, oops I mean campaign contributors.. Our fine “upstanding” mayor spent over $80,000 to win a $100,000 mayor seat.. Hmmmm So the “Contributors” would only have to pay once every four years instead of three.
Ever read “Crazy City”. Rob Ford was elected on promises of cleaning up waste at City Hall In Toronto. And of course he also provides a lot of entertainment at the same time.
cheers
I’d probably support a 4 year term, if we had some sort of recall option. Getting pretty tired of people on City Council treating the taxpayers as inferior.
And I would vote for someone who had that platform, interceptor. I think people want to feel that they are getting more for their money. We clearly need to fix the infrastructure. I can’t refinish my basement, if my roof is leaking. Can’t go to China if my walls are crumbling. Can’t have a party if my toilet is overflowing. Neither should the city feel that they can spend on niceties if they aren’t willing to maintain what we already own.
“… if we had some sort of recall option.”
Of course one should consider that conducting a recall costs a pile of money, so any potential savings from going to 4 from 3 would be wiped out and more!
If more than one bad egg needs to be recalled it would get really expensive!
Turfing them all out after 3 years is much better then letting them wreak havoc for 4 years!
Meh; why not throw in one extra year of incompetence!
This is a result of a general disdain for accountability by the elected. It has nothing to do with accountability. Expect to pay more in taxes and have politicians that are more high on their horse than they already are.
Democracy is under attack provincially and federally. Voters need to become more pro-active in regard to demanding legislative changes in regard to recall of non responsible politicians and perhaps we need to issue fines for people who are too lazy to vote. Fines are used in Australia and voter turnout is healthy.
Allot of $%^& can go down in four years, as we are in the thick of right now…scrap it.
Another year of no accountability. Just what the taxpayer needs! Another year of letting the overseers have their way with us!
BS!
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