Local Government Accountability is Going the Way of the Boiling Frog.

Apparently, if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it will jump right out. But if you put a frog in a pot of water at room temperature, then gradually increase the heat, the frog will stay there and die. Because the change in temperature is gradual the frog won’t notice that it is losing something important - its life.

I thought of the dying frog when I read the articles in the papers about the Comox Town Council refusing to support Councillor Marcia Turner’s request of the Citizen Voice Project to have the votes recorded publicly. It is one more example of the lack of transparency and accountability. But we don’t seem to notice we are losing our rights because it is happening gradually, all around us, among various levels of government.

Democracy is built upon the principle of accountability. It means that the people we elect must be answerable to us. It also means that they must ensure we have the means to hold them accountable. Accountability is one of the concerns of the Citizen Voice Project.

Comox Council, unlike the Courtenay Council, voted against the request. Why? The reasons given amount to a pitiful smokescreen to reduce accountability. Mayor Paul Ives says he just doesn’t like scoreboards. Councillors Ken Grant and Tom Grant thought the residents wouldn’t understand the vote or might be misled. We are being treated like children.

The decision of Comox Council to reduce accountability is part of an ongoing trend. The best example is the Comox Valley Regional District’s public hearings on the Regional Growth Strategy.

During the first session of the RGS, when people in an overcrowded room complained they could not hear the speakers because of the inadequate sound system, the Chair, Mr. Phelps, indicated it was not necessary for the people to hear. It was only necessary for the board to hear. He then suggested, because of the overcrowding, that after people made their 3 minute presentation they should leave to make room for others. In the second session he threatened the audience, indicating he would close the session down if people didn’t stop clapping after the presentations. It is hard not to become cynical about local government when we experience such abuses of our rights as citizens.

The next problem was the failure of the board to remove the settlement expansion areas. Almost every speaker in the two sessions was opposed to the SEAs. While assuring the public that their input was important and changes could be made later, the board approved Second Reading and passed the amendment, with the SEAs included, on to the local governments. Then, Mr. Phelps announced that he had been mistaken. There could be no further changes or modifications to the document. The SEAs were in and any changes were out. We expect the government to understand its own rules. When it doesn’t, we lose and accountability goes out the window.

Undoubtedly the greatest failure in accountability was the unwillingness of the CVRD to address the most important environmental issue in the Comox Valley -the proposed new coal mines. When staff told the board they could not deal with this issue because it was a provincial responsibility, the board simply acquiesced. But what sense is a 20-year Regional Growth Strategy if it does not address the most important environmental issue facing the Comox Valley - an issue that could change the nature of our valley for many years to come. We need to know why the CVRD does not demand that the Provincial Government allow it to deal with our concerns about coal mines within the Regional Growth Strategy.

We have to stop the steady erosion of our rights by demanding more accountability from our elected officials. We have to regain control of the future of our valley.

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