NPA mayoral candidate promises a disclosure bylaw to ensure accountability
Posted August 12, 2014 11:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The NPA candidate running for mayor of Vancouver is promising a more open city hall if he is elected in November 2014. Kirk LaPointe says he has plans to bring in transparency through a new bylaw.
“I think it’s a reasonably simple task of changing the culture and it requires some enforcement. So it requires a bylaw that says as a rule we’ll disclose, and people will have to argue against disclosure of information. We’ll take the muzzle off the public servants and let them talk to media, special interest groups and of course, the public.”
As part of his promise, he’ll bring in an Office of the Ombudsperson to represent the public and also produce an independent annual report.
“We’ll appoint an Ombudsperson to make sure that there is independent oversight so it’s not just my promise, it’s actually enforced by someone who is independent and rigorous. [Someone] who will make sure the public’s complaints are heard at city hall,” explains LaPointe.
Another measure he outlines is to go where Vancouverites are and hold at least one-quarter of Council, Park Board or School Board meetings in affected neighbourhoods.
The amount of money city hall spends on everything and even some details on how decisions are made are just some of the things the former CBC Ombudsman thinks you need to have access to.
“The public doesn’t really understand how its dollars are being spent. How are decisions being made? How effective are some of these programs. For example, we don’t really know what the mayor’s office spends…we don’t really have a line by line budget that any reputable business has,” he argues.
He says he wants to improve the relationship between government and taxpayers by gaining people’s trust. He criticizes the current government saying it has turned off taxpayers by shutting them out of consultation process.
