RDN board votes to keep legislative reform initiative timeline open

Rachelle Stein-Wotten

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder

In discussing when the Regional District of Nanaimo should wind down its leadership role in a legislative reform effort for B.C. regional districts, the board of directors voted to leave it open ended.

A motion for the Regional District of Nanaimo to no longer fund legislative reform beyond the end of 2025 was defeated in a weighted vote at the July 23 board meeting.

The RDN has been leading the charge through discussions with provincial ministers and other local governments since 2021 to update the Local Government Act in areas such as regulatory powers, income sources and board voting rules. The topic of inclusive governance with First Nations has also been intertwined with the legislative reform discussion.

Electoral Area G Director Lehann Wallace brought forward the motion saying it was time for the initiative to be led by another body to reduce RDN staff time and funds spent on it.

“It should be picked up at the provincial level and I think UBCM [Union of BC Municipalities] is the proper place for this to go…. This was already on a path to this and I’m suggesting we put a timeline on that path.”

Nanaimo Director Tyler Brown, who was RDN board chair when the efforts on legislative reform began, said placing a timeline on reducing the RDN’s role was “premature.

“We will know in a year’s time where we’re at and after a provincial election what right moves are going to be.”

Electoral Area B director and current board chair Vanessa Craig voted against the motion.

“Based on some of the suggestions of a full stop I won’t support, but I do think the aspect of checking in regularly and moving towards the goal…and if you want to talk about use of tax money, the amount of money that we’re using to address and work around some of these issues that we’re blocked from addressing because of the issues we want to change through legislative reform, if we do move forward on this, it will have a significant impact.”

Some directors wanted more information on how how much the RDN is spending on pursuing legislative reform. A report provided to the board at the June 25 committee of the whole meeting on the strategy and intergovernmental services office of the RDN – whose portfolio includes the legislative reform project – has a budget of $1,590,628 for 2024. Approximately 61 per cent of it relates to professional fees and public consultation costs for projects and initiatives, including the legislative reform initiative, First Nations engagement and reconciliation activities, Indigenous cultural awareness training, strategic plan creation and review, the Island Rail Corridor Planning Project and the Inclusive Regional Governance Study.

Some of those projects’ costs, such as the Island Rail Corridor Planning Project and Inclusive Regional Governance Study, are funded through grants while about $355,945 of other project costs are not.