Groups frustrated with consultation process
Saanich has 16 community associations with a long history of having a say with council.
But they’re not being asked when it comes to the way the district will choose citizens to review how Saanich and the capital region are governed, says Rob Wickson, president of the Gorge Tillicum group.
Instead of asking the associations how to proceed, councillors — with the exception of Mayor Richard Atwell — voted to ask a consultant instead, Wickson said. He has been tapped by Atwell to be on a standing committee for such a review along with Coun. Colin Plant, but the committee has never met.
Both Wickson and John Schmuck, president of the Quadra-Cedar Hill Community Association, expressed concern that Saanich did not even add the governance issue to its Oct. 5 agenda until after the items to be discussed were published.
Wickson said he has been checking public agendas for the item, then went to a Neil Young concert in Vancouver the night the issue came up. “So I had no chance of coming in and commenting on it.”
The question council is pursuing was asked in the 2014 municipal election: “Do you support council initiating a communitybased review of the governance structure and policies within Saanich and our partnerships within the region?”
Community associations will have two representatives in the focus group vetting applications for a 13-member community governance review committee, but were not given any of the 13 spaces in advance.
The rest of the focus group will be selected from Saanich advisory committees.
Ground rules have been set, so community associations will have to apply like any other prospective committee candidate, Schmuck said. “I would have liked to have a greater role for the community associations in the review.”
Wickson said the governance review is supposed to be community led, and questioned how that can be if municipal staff and councillors are involved with who sits on the advisory committees — and they’re chaired by councillors.
“How can they be proper advisory committees if they are only there at the goodwill of Saanich council?” Wickson asked.
He predicted most governance committee members eventually chosen will also be there through the goodwill of council.
“It’s not a random selection of citizens, it’s a random selection of approved citizens,” Wickson said.
Coun. Judy Brownoff said the focus group won’t see the names on the applications, in order to avoid favouritism.
Schmuck said he is “taken aback” that it’s been almost a year since the referendum question was posed, and advertisements for the governance committee haven’t gone out.
“It took far too long for the process to get started.”