Terrace city council will soon be reviewing its code of ethics, in order to coincide with provincial community charter-related laws.
In a council meeting March 27, city council members voted to review the policy during a future meeting, no later than May 14.
Terrace’s Code of Ethics sets expectations for conduct or behaviour that members of council should follow while carrying out their responsibilities and work.
The motion stems from the provincial Community Charter, which requires councils provincewide to consider whether or not to establish or revise a code of conduct within six months of its first regular meeting after a local election.
B.C.’s municipal election was in October 2022.
During the March 27 meeting, councillors debated what a review would include or look like, all of which could entail no changes to the current code.
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Councillor James Cordeiro suggested that it should be amended to align with the city’s anti-racism bullying policy, which was brought forward August 2021, specifically around “retaliation and retribution protections for filing a good faith complaint and I believe that there is a section on how vexatious complaints are dealt with,” he said.
According to the meeting, the last time the code of ethics was revised was in 2007.
“Sixteen years is a long time to have not reviewed this. I think it’s fair that we have a Committee of the Whole to review,” Mayor Sean Bujtas said.
Councillor Dave Gordon questioned if city staff should do a review to identify any gaps in the current policy, noting it to be “a big rabbit hole for staff to go down,” and offered to assist with a review.
As per the provincial law, if council decides not to review its existing code of conduct, its decision must be available to the public, on request, before Jan. 1 of the next municipal election, which in B.C. is set for 2026.
It was ultimately decided that council will review the policy in a future committee of the whole meeting.
viktor.elias@terracestandard.com
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