Third-party report recommends more independence for Vancouver's integrity commissioner

Chad Pawson · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 7:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

A reappraisal of Vancouver's Code of Conduct bylaw has made 10 recommendations connected however it tin beryllium strengthened, astir notably by enhancing the independency of the city's integrity commissioner.

The study by Vancouver lawyer Reece Harding  — Surrey's erstwhile integrity commissioner — is from aboriginal February but was released this week aft council's approval.

Harding and his squad conducted 24 interviews with Vancouver assembly members, the integrity commissioner, and metropolis unit and surmised that portion determination was statement that section authorities officials should beryllium held accountable for their behaviour, determination was interest that codes of behaviour could beryllium "easily weaponized oregon politicized."

"To immoderate grade this cognition was accurate, it is concerning," reads the report. "As metropolis unit made wide to us, the codification needs to enactment efficaciously for assembly and if adjacent a number of assembly views the codification negatively, this cognition volition bounds its effectiveness."

The comments follow a contentious summertime astatine metropolis hallway wherever assembly projected pausing the enactment of Vancouver's integrity commissioner, Lisa Southern, successful bid to facilitate a reappraisal of her enactment and mandate.

Vancouver's integrity commissioner and her squad chiefly analyse metropolis assembly and advisory committee members' Code of Conduct bylaw complaints.

The Office of the Integrity Commissioner received 31 complaints from November 1, 2023, to October 31, 2024, with 22 dismissed, 7 closed, and 2 inactive successful advancement astatine the clip of the office's latest yearly report.

"In our view, and accounting for our acquisition successful the City of Surrey and elsewhere successful B.C., the figures supra bespeak that the codification is functioning effectively," reads the study from Harding.

The determination to intermission Southern's enactment to reappraisal it was met with absorption and shelved until April 9, when a ballot connected the substance is to occur.

There are already updates coming to Vancouver's Code of Conduct bylaw arsenic Vancouver's auditor wide besides highlighted deficiencies implicit the relation of governmental unit astatine metropolis hall.

Integrity commissioner protection

Harding's Code of Conduct bylaw reappraisal besides included recommendations astir the codification and governmental staff, on with ways to marque the integrity commissioner's bureau much autarkic and resistant to repercussions.

"For a decision-maker to beryllium independent, the decision-maker indispensable beryllium protected from arbitrary termination without cause, simplification successful compensation, and interference successful matters that carnivore connected the workout of their judicial function," reads the report.

In a connection astir the report, Mayor Ken Sim said, "accountability and integrity matter."

He said assembly took enactment with the third-party reappraisal aft Southern, herself, raised concerns astir the scope of her relation successful her 2023 yearly report.

Sim says his squad is committed to moving done the 10 recommendations with assembly and metropolis unit "to marque smart, thoughtful changes that amended transparency and fairness to a process that isn't conscionable flawed, but besides costly to taxpayers."

Southern's bureau has a fund of $200,000 per year, but successful the archetypal 10 months of 2024 had spent $194,285, an summation from the erstwhile year, according to her 2024 yearly report. The study said full fees for services for 2024 were expected to transcend $200,000.

More powers from province, please

Harding is besides recommending that the metropolis inquire the state to amend the Vancouver Charter — a provincial statute that contains the city's governance rules — that volition let the metropolis to recognize meaningful changes to its Code of Conduct bylaw and "create and empower a genuinely autarkic integrity commissioner."

On Thursday successful Victoria, the minister of lodging and municipal affairs said his ministry would look astatine the study and its recommendations arsenic portion of a provincewide review of codes of behaviour it is undertaking with the Union of B.C. Municipalities.

"The extremity is to update that and guarantee that each section governments are treating each other, their unit and the nationalist successful a precise transparent and unfastened way," said Ravi Kahlon. "I deliberation that volition fortify ideology successful the times that we're in."