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New legislation proposes longer terms municipally

BRITISH COLUMBIA - With municipal elections slated for this fall, new legislation proposed in Victoria last week could see big changes come voting time.

Perhaps the most drastic of those changes would be extending the current three-year terms to four, which would apply not only to city council members but also regional districts, school boards and park boards.Coun. Helen Fathers, chair of White Rock's governance and legislation committee, said the longer terms would be good in that it would allow councils to get more done."Being in White Rock, I think it would work for us," said Fathers. "I have heard some negativity about smaller municipalities working slow so if we can get another year to implement some of the things that council wants to do that would be good - and of course, it would end up costing the city less in the long run."Other proposed changes involve transparency, and would require candidates running in local elections to advertise their sponsors on any signage that is put up, as well as a financial disclosures being made available online and submitted within 90 days of an election. While many municipalities already do post candidate financial disclosure statements online, it is not required by law."That's great. There's nothing wrong with taking money from people, we probably all do from different sources, but I think the more transparent and open we can be about where the money comes from, the more the community would be aware," said Fathers. "We should be proud of where the money comes from, so the more transparent we can be about that is the better."However, Fathers wondered what would define a sponsor, be it commercial or private.A limit on election spending was also talked about in 2013, but those changes were not included in the proposed legislation. In a provincial report released at the end of 2013, comparisons were made to Ontario where expense limits are $7,500 for mayoral candidates and $5,000 for council candidates. There were no proposed limits for B.C. in the report, but it's an idea Fathers agrees with."Just look at the amount of money people do spend, if that was all at the same limit that would be better for the community as a whole, it would even the playing field" said Fathers. "I don't take money from developers, that's just my policy and that means I just have to work twice as hard to get my name out there because I don't have the big money behind me. So if that playing field looks the same, it might stop people taking money from developers."cpoon@thenownewspaper.com