Powell River Regional District board members have landed in a quagmire trying to sort out when a director may participate in meetings electronically. The issue was thrashed out a year ago when the board adopted a new procedures bylaw that allowed electronic participation, under certain circumstances. The revision arose because Lasqueti Island Director Merrick Anderson routinely participated in committee meetings over the telephone, but the procedure bylaw hadn’t been updated to allow this.
For municipalities, the Community Charter allows individual council or committee members to participate in meetings through electronic means, such as over the telephone or over the Internet, for example through Skype. For regional districts, the authority comes from a provincial regulation that has the same conditions.
It makes sense for regional district directors who live long distances away from where meetings are being held to participate electronically. In the case of the Lasqueti director, electronic participation is less costly and less time consuming and allows him to keep current on issues.
When the procedure bylaw revisions were first introduced over a year ago, the rationale behind restricting electronic participation was justified because when directors were not available due to holidays, illness or other commitments, their alternates were generally available.
In fact, alternates are the big difference between regional district and municipal elected officials. Regional districts have alternates, who are appointed and sworn in. Municipalities don’t have alternates, so when elected officials are absent, their seat is empty.
City of Powell River directors on the regional board have been arguing to change the regional district’s procedure bylaw to allow all directors to participate electronically, not just directors from Lasqueti and Texada islands, which is how the bylaw stands now. Their reasoning includes the argument that, at times, a director’s alternate may not be available to attend a meeting and it’s better to have a full seat than an empty seat.
True enough. But in those rare occasions, an alternate can be—and has, in the past been—sworn in.
BC’s ministry of community, sport and cultural development has useful information on factors to take into account when considering electronic meetings. It seems clear that the province did not intend that electronic meeting attendance should supplant personal attendance as the norm. In some instances, elected officials who are frequently out of town must decide what is more important, their personal time away or their public service.
