Rhys Williams

Topic

From Voluntary to Mandatory: Reforming Responsible Conduct in British Columbia's Local Governments

School of Public Administration

Date & location

• Friday, May 8, 2026

• 11:00 A.M.

• Human and Social Development

• Room A302

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Every Lindquist, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

• Dr. Tamara Krawchenko, School of Public Administration, UVic (Member) 

External Examiner

• Prof. Robert Lapper, Faculty of Law, University of Victoria 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Simon Devereaux, Department of History, UVic

   

Abstract

In British Columbia (“BC”), local governments are responsible for providing good governance and stewardship to their community. Further, locally elected officials are responsible for conducting themselves in a manner that enhances the well-being and interests of a community. Due to this, the responsible conduct of elected officials should be understood as a foundational component of providing effective local governance. 

In recent years, cases of less than responsible conduct from elected officials have become more prevalent, disruptive, and increasingly difficult to manage for local governments in BC. Responsible conduct challenges can create division within a council or board, erode trust between elected officials, and impact the collaborative decision-making processes. In turn, internal dysfunction can impact the ability of a local government to deliver essential services and may affect public confidence in elected officials. These challenges can have broad implications and present a significant policy challenge for local governments in BC. 

The purpose of this project is to address the underlying factors contributing to this challenge, examine the approaches for promoting and maintaining responsible conduct, and identify solutions to improve local governance standards. 

Accordingly, the primary research questions this project intends to address are:

• What factors contribute to misconduct in local governments, and what forms of misconduct have been evident in BC? 

• What options are available to address the challenges surrounding the responsible conduct of locally elected officials in BC? 

Research Methods

Four methods were used to gather evidence for this project: a literature review, document review, cross-jurisdictional scan, and four cases studies. 

The literature review collected academic and grey literature to establish the conceptual and thematic foundation for the project. The aim of the literature review is to determine what is known about the challenge, introduce the key trends and driving factors, and identify areas for improvement and gaps in the existing research. The literature review employs a heavy focus on the BC context for this challenge and includes academic literature to expand the scope to the broader Canadian context. Six key themes emerged through the literature review. These themes highlight: the conceptual foundations of responsible conduct and good governance, the trends in local government misconduct, the driving factors of misconduct, the key components of responsible conduct frameworks, the pathways for reform, and the key implementation barriers and gaps in the literature. 

The document review examines BC’s responsible conduct framework through the collection and analysis of 132 local government codes of conduct from across the province. The code of conduct review analyzes the structure of codes, looking at the core elements and the procedures involved. The document review informs two key findings on the landscape of BC’s local government codes of conduct. The key findings that emerged through the document review identify the core elements used to characterize “robust” codes of conduct, and the effectiveness of codes of conduct introduced as bylaws.

The cross-jurisdictional scan provides a comparative evaluation of provincial responsible conduct frameworks across Canada. This scan reviews the unique components offered across provincial frameworks and looks at the key framework tools involved to identify the best practices and potential areas for policy improvement for BC’s framework. The cross jurisdictional scan identifies that the landscape of provincial responsible conduct frameworks is mostly consistent and that BC’s framework remains significantly behind other provincial models. 

The four case studies presented focus on: the City of Kamloops, the Village of Harrison Hot Springs, the City of Surrey, and the District of West Vancouver. Each case study was carefully selected to examine a distinct responsible conduct challenge to demonstrate the different ways that misconduct has emerged and been managed across the province. Together, the case studies illustrate how responsible conduct challenges can impact local governance. 

Key Findings

Three key findings are presented in this project. The key findings are informed through the cross cutting themes identified in the four lines of evidence. The first key finding highlights the challenges associated with the voluntary nature of BC’s responsible conduct framework. The second key finding identifies the structural solutions to improving BC’s framework through legislative amendments to make codes of conduct mandatory for all local governments. The final key finding brings attention to the external pressures and social dynamics driving the broader behavioural challenges surrounding responsible conduct and offers standardized training and educational approaches as a solution. 

Policy Options and Recommendation

Three policy options are presented in this project. The first policy option offers an approach that focuses on minimal reform, maintaining the voluntary nature of BC’s current responsible conduct framework, but enhances the status-quo by strengthening guidance and encouraging improved local governance standards. The second policy option presents a structured reform model that focuses on legislative amendments to make codes of conduct mandatory for all local governments, a regulation to prescribe key elements in codes, and mandatory training and education initiatives for locally elected officials. The third policy option focuses on a centralized oversight model that employs a provincial integrity commissioner’s office to manage all cases of misconduct and is paired with a provincially prescribed code of conduct regulation. 

This project presents five key criteria to evaluate the policy options. The criteria are directly informed through the evidence provided in the four research methods and the key findings of this project. The evaluation criteria are: effectiveness, consistency and uniformity, feasibility and practicality, support for governance culture, and resilience to modern governance pressures. 

Through the criteria evaluation of the policy options, this project identifies Policy Option Two as the recommended approach and presents an implementation plan to identify the key phases required for the Province of British Columbia to adopt this policy option. The recommendation is intended to help address the challenges facing BC’s local governments, improve governance standards, and introduce a framework that provides the necessary mechanisms to manage cases of misconduct.