City’s look at corporate vote dies on the table
Parksville councillor Marc Lefebvre’s motion asking the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) to ask the province to allow corporations to vote in municipalities died quickly in council.
The notice of motion said there is an imbalance between companies that can’t vote and non-resident property owners who are able to vote in local elections.
“This is about taxation without representation ... this is not the right thing to do,” he explained.
Coun. Sue Powell said the same motion was “rightfully defeated,” at a previous UBCM conference and she pointed out that the only local taxes a company pays are property taxes, so if a company pays taxes in Parksville they already get a vote as a property owner.
Mayor Chris Burger said that B.C. allowed something like that in the past but it was dropped partly because it was “almost impossible to enforce.”
He said it would be a continuation of the shift of democratic power out of citizens’ hands. A majority of council rejected the motion.
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