ABC Vancouver’s ‘repudiation of the rule of law’ shows gap in B.C.’s municipal oversight, Ombudsperson says​on March 27, 2025 at 11:54 pm

B.C.’s public-sector watchdog has called out the president of Vancouver’s ruling party for openly flouting the city’s integrity commissioner, calling it “a disturbing repudiation of the rule of law.”

Recent developments out of Vancouver City Hall have highlighted the need for the provincial government to step up and ensure effective oversight of municipal misconduct, B.C. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke wrote this week in a letter to provincial Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Ravi Kahlon.

Chalke wrote he was “deeply concerned” by comments from ABC president Stephen Molnar, as quoted last month by Postmedia News, saying the party planned to continue caucusing privately despite the city’s integrity commissioner ruling that such meetings constituted improper backroom decision-making.

On Thursday, Chalke said: “What I find troubling is that all of this really undermines the integrity of the oversight system. When findings from an independent body can be publicly dismissed without any consequence, it just exposes how fragile the current structure is. And this isn’t about one party, and it isn’t even really about one municipality. It’s about building a provincewide system strong enough to withstand the various challenges to municipal integrity.”

Chalke has previously raised concerns about ethics and integrity oversight in B.C.’s local governments, and has pushed for provincial legislation on this issue since 2022. Recent stories out of Vancouver only “reinforce the urgency” for the province to ensure integrity commissioners can independently investigate and sanction misconduct by municipal politicians, without the risk of interference from the very officials they are tasked with overseeing, Chalke wrote in his letter.

“At the heart of this, this is about public trust,” Chalke said.

Reached Thursday, Molnar took issue with Chalke’s findings.

“ABC Vancouver agrees with the provincial Ombudsperson that the provincial government needs to take action on this matter. Just not the action he recommends,” Molnar wrote in an email.

“On the one hand, the provincial government has created, enabled and fostered a party system at the municipal level. This is a historic fact. Parties in the past have caucused freely, as is their right under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, for decades,” Molnar said.

“But on the other hand, very recent judicial opinions and their interpretations by those with no legal authority, have suggested the very act of caucusing is against the Municipal Act. Which is it? Which set of laws should we follow?”

Chalke argues B.C. should implement a legislative framework establishing the independence of integrity commissioners — so their work can’t be halted as Surrey’s city council did in 2022 and Vancouver’s council tried to do last year — and enabling them to impose sanctions. Unlike elsewhere in Canada where provincial legislation mandates codes of conduct and their enforcement, B.C.’s municipal councils are left to decide whether to adopt a code of conduct, how to amend it and whether to impose penalties for misconduct. B.C.’s current “optional” local codes of conduct are too weak, he says.