What if local government was a better place for women and gender minorities?

November 2024

We are solidly into Phase 2 of this project, this time in partnership with the Centre for Civic Governance and with generous funding from WAGE Canada.

You can click on the links at the top of the page to learn more about each of these areas. We are currently focused on:
– providing solutions based workshops for local governments to address some of the challenges identified in the first report
– expanded research into Nova Scotia, PEI, and Saskatchewan
– an opportunity for others to be trained on how to run values base campaign schools

Interested? Drop us a note! research@localrepresentation.ca

August 2024

No time to read this blog? Listen to this interview with Nadine Nakagawa on CBC’s The Early Edition.

There are never-ending examples of how and why we need to improve the system in local government to clear the way for great governance and reduce political chaos.

Vancouver is this month’s example.

In recent years, the City of Vancouver brought in an integrity commissioner to review complaints to the code of conduct for mayor and council. Because this role is embedded in the city and not the province, mayor and council have the ability to change the scope of work or halt the role at any time with a ⅔ majority vote to a motion.

That’s what is happening right now. One councilor brought forward a motion to pause the work of the commissioner and hire a third party to review the scope. The reason behind this happening now has been cause for speculation in the public realm. The mayor convened an emergency meeting only to vote on this motion. 

The part that folks across Canada might not know is that Vancouver (and many BC municipalities) has a council represented by municipal political parties. Currently, there are the parties represented at this table. A Better City has 5 councilors plus the mayor; The Green Party of Vancouver has 2 councilors; One City has 1 councilor.

And votes can sometimes follow party lines. An ABC councilor brought the motion forward, the ABC mayor called the emergency meeting. The councilors from opposing parties chose not to attend the meeting. And because 2 of the ABC councilors did not attend, quorum was not achieved and the agenda item was postponed to a regular meeting in September.

Listen to co-founder of The Feminist Campaign School, Nadine Nakagawa, address this on CKNW’s The Simi Sara Show (opens in Spotify)


What does all of this tell us?

The role of an integrity commissioner does not belong in the employ of individual municipalities for a few reasons:

1. The mayor and council can halt the work at any time (in 2022, then-mayor of Surrey Doug McCallum ended the work of the city’s commissioner prior to running for re-election). Councilors who rely on this process as a way to address safety concerns such as bullying by other members of council, can never be certain the process will be there when they really need it.

2. Not every municipality can afford to hire their own commissioner, nor should they have to. This becomes the privilege of communities with large budgets and leaves smaller communities without any process.


The real solution is for provincial governments to create an arm’s length office that is adequately resourced and appropriately staffed to review code of conduct complaints for legitimacy, investigate when appropriate, and (this is key) be able to do more than just make recommendations to the mayor and council on how to handle the situation.

The behavior of elected officials in local governments is, ironically, ungoverned. These elected roles are jobs with expectations and responsibilities, and yet are not covered by labour legislation and have absolutely no oversight. This gap needs to be repaired, and it needs to be repaired by the entity that governs local governments: provincial governments.  The precedent exists with local government acts and offices of Municipal Affairs.


TAKE ACTION
If you are elected to local government – advocate to have your council write a letter to your premier with recommendations to enact an office of integrity for municipal governments.

If you are a resident, write to your mayor, council, MLA, and premier and tell them it is time to act on the chaos (if it hasn’t happened yet in your community – this is work that can future-proof your council). 

If you’re having issues with the behaviour of your mayor or council, please reach out. We’d like to support you!

JULY 2024
In 2023, we published the findings of our research on the experience of women and gender minorities in local government in BC and Alberta and solutions to address the barriers to staying in office.

In 2024, we are expanding our research to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan to understand if these same issues occur or if there are unique challenges in these provinces.

At the same time, we are launching educational workshops and policy support in BC and Alberta to address the solutions identified in phase 1.

If you would like your muncipality to participate or to learn more, please send us an email.


About the report
Women and gender minorities elected to local government are experiencing alarming rates of bullying, harassment and abuse. And you have the opportunity to prevent it by taking action now.

The Feminist Campaign School in partnership with Climate Caucus set out in 2021 to understand why progressive women and gender minorities leave local government after serving only one or two terms, and what it would take to retain them longer in their roles.

We surveyed women and gender minorities in local governments about what is missing in the logistics of the work including whether they receive adequate pay and benefits, are offered flexibility to meet other obligations or hold other jobs since most of these roles are considered part time, what training and supports are provided, and whether they are provided accommodation for disabilities. We received a variety of responses that painted a bleak picture about whether the role of serving as a mayor, councilor, or regional district representative works for women and gender minorities. .

We expected to hear that significant barriers exist. However, we weren’t prepared for the relentless and consistent accounts of bullying, harassment, and abuse experienced on the job – not just from constituents, but from staff and colleagues alike. 

There is a gap in accountability as elected officials are not protected by workplace regulations, have no one to turn to when they experience harmful behaviour, and have no standard accountability mechanisms to hold people accountable for their behaviour. In practice this means that people elected to local government roles have no oversight for their behaviour when it causes harm.