The province is moving ahead with plans to create an auditor general of local government office to provide financial oversight of municipalities.
The B.C. government tabled legislation for the new position last Thursday. The office of the auditor would be based in Surrey, Premier Christy Clark announced last week.
The position is "not a bad thing," according to Simon Fraser University political scientist Patrick Smith.
"Which is not the same thing as to say it's what should be happening," he added.
There are many other issues with municipal accountability that the province should address first, Smith pointed out.
"I wouldn't think if you were trying to fix things that needed fixing at the municipal level, that the auditor general would be the first thing that needed fixing," Smith said.
After the 2008 municipal elections, a number of controversies arose around election spending, he said, at which time then-premier Gordon Campbell set up the Local Government Elections Task Force.
Recommendations from the task force were released last spring, including putting spending limits on campaigns.
"Campbell had promised this would all be in place for 2011, and they never got to it," he said.
"I would think there is probably a need for a municipal conflict of interest commissioner," Smith added.
He has known B.C.'s last three conflict of interest commissioners, he said, and each told him the biggest number of queries they get from "non-jurisdictional" issues (not provincial) are from municipal councillors.
The councillors usually want to make sure that a campaign donation, say from a developer, doesn't create a conflict of interest should they then vote on a land use issue, he added.
Another possible direction for the province would be creating a municipal registry of lobbyists, according to Smith.
"If I were building up a list of things that would add more value to local democracy and local government, those would be ahead of the municipal auditor general," he said.
But he added the new position isn't a negative one and is in line with Clark's stated commitment to open government.
"I don't think anyone could make an argument that an independent oversight agency can't and won't add value," he said. "I think it probably will in the end."
However, Smith added that he could understand why municipalities might be concerned about the costs.
Though the provincial government has committed to covering the cost of the new office, the costs could become a municipal responsibility in the future if the government changes its mind in five or 10 years, Smith said.
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said in September that establishing the position would be a waste of money as there's no clear reason to do so.
It is redundant to create a new position when overseeing municipal spending could be covered by the Inspector of Municipalities, or by expanding the B.C. Auditor General's role, he said.
Municipal governments are already required to run budgets without a deficit, and none have gone bankrupt or gone into deficit in B.C., he added.
Burnaby Board of Trade president Paul Holden was not available for an interview on the subject but sent a statement to the NOW saying he doesn't believe the office will be particularly relevant for Burnaby.
"Considering that Burnaby was named the Best Run Municipality in Canada by Maclean's magazine (in 2008) and that we have a city hall that is both open and transparent with how it is spending taxpayers' dollars, I don't see this being a top priority for our city," he wrote.
But he added the board wants open government at every level, not just municipal.
"The Burnaby Board of Trade certainly advocates strongly for open and transparent government at all levels, especially when it comes to government spending of tax dollars," he wrote.
