End the District of Saanich's Collaboration with the Development Lobby
End the District of Saanich's Collaboration with the Development Lobby
The Issue
In the interests of democracy, free from potential dangers of undue influence, we the signed call for a complete end to the District of Saanich's collaboration with the development lobby and in order to achieve that to immediately cease collaborative work and relations between the municipality and the Urban Development Institute.
During the March 13, 2023 Council Meeting, Saanich Council voted to discontinue its paid membership with the Urban Development Institute Capital Region development lobby; a key lobby for development in the CRD. Councillors cited among other reasons, perceived conflict of interest concerns among the public.
For a level of government to be paying money to a development lobby that lobbies the government is clearly a full circle conflict of interest, as that essentially means that the government is in effect lobbying itself using taxpayer dollars in the interests of the development industry.
That Saanich ended its "formal" relationship with the UDI, doesn't mean that its relationship with the organization has ended. In fact in many ways the departure from membership has had for some, the appearance of taking one step forward and two steps backward by making collaboration between the two entities less obvious to the public than it was prior to the decision.
To be very clear, the municipality is still offering an annual allowance of up to $500 of taxpayer money annually to be spent by each of the councillors if they so choose to be educated at the UDI development lobby.
That means the government is still offering the opportunity to pay the lobby with taxpayer funds to have elected officials educated at the lobby.
We find this utterly unacceptable. If there were conflict of interest concerns before, they certainly have not ended and there appears to be even less transparency regarding the relationship between the two entities than before the discontinuation of membership.
Not only that, but it appears that one of the reasons the district does not want to end its relations with the development lobby, is that it has in some ways become used to and perhaps even dependent on its help to function.
By offering crucial technical and other expertise to councillors and in particular district staff, the development lobby has positioned itself to have a certain leverage over the municipality through the dynamics of this power arrangement, one that is clearly open to potential abuse. The type of leverage created by such a lopsided relationship between lobby and state could never have been achieved through traditional lobbying.
If it turns out that the District has become dependent on the development lobby to function, then that situation could be considered a form of so called "state capture" and is a clear danger to the integrity and sovereignty of local democracy.
It is clearly in the public's democractic interests to avoid the possibility of the potential dangers of such a scenario.
To rectify the current situation vis-à-vis the relationship between the two entities and to restore the power of constituents to the forefront of local democracy, we the signed call upon the District of Saanich to immediately cease its relationships and collaboration with the Urban Development Institute and to make it official policy to cease paying public money to not only the UDI, but to any lobby for that matter.
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Notes: Signatures for this petition are to be solely by residents of Saanich.
Please do not donate to the petition, as it is a local petition and promoting it by donation will not make it targeted locally. Instead, please share it to your friends and family for free.
The photo at top is of Royal Bay, which although it is not in the District of Saanich illustrates a potential for similar developments in Saanich.
Sources:
(Note: Although there is a lobby registry for lobbying of the Provincial Government, no such lobby registry exists for Saanich at the Municipal level, making lobby activities far less transparent than they should be in an open democracy on the local level).
https://www.saanichnews.com/business/saanich-applies-to-join-chamber-of-commerce/
Document:
DISTRICT OF SAANICH
MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING
HELD AT THE SAANICH MUNICIPAL HALL, 770 VERNON AVENUE
MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2019
The previous petition to withdraw Saanich's UDI membership: https://www.change.org/p/withdraw-the-district-of-saanich-from-development-lobby-membership?redirect=false
Video of the March 13 Council Meeting, whereby council unanimously voted to discontinue its UDI membership (The deliberations began at 4:57:20):
https://saanich.ca.granicus.com/player/clip/730?view_id=1&redirect=true&h=9ec7723ae1ff80e8032f8a2c00228305
For more information please contact:
SaanichPetition@mail.com
92
The Issue
In the interests of democracy, free from potential dangers of undue influence, we the signed call for a complete end to the District of Saanich's collaboration with the development lobby and in order to achieve that to immediately cease collaborative work and relations between the municipality and the Urban Development Institute.
During the March 13, 2023 Council Meeting, Saanich Council voted to discontinue its paid membership with the Urban Development Institute Capital Region development lobby; a key lobby for development in the CRD. Councillors cited among other reasons, perceived conflict of interest concerns among the public.
For a level of government to be paying money to a development lobby that lobbies the government is clearly a full circle conflict of interest, as that essentially means that the government is in effect lobbying itself using taxpayer dollars in the interests of the development industry.
That Saanich ended its "formal" relationship with the UDI, doesn't mean that its relationship with the organization has ended. In fact in many ways the departure from membership has had for some, the appearance of taking one step forward and two steps backward by making collaboration between the two entities less obvious to the public than it was prior to the decision.
To be very clear, the municipality is still offering an annual allowance of up to $500 of taxpayer money annually to be spent by each of the councillors if they so choose to be educated at the UDI development lobby.
That means the government is still offering the opportunity to pay the lobby with taxpayer funds to have elected officials educated at the lobby.
We find this utterly unacceptable. If there were conflict of interest concerns before, they certainly have not ended and there appears to be even less transparency regarding the relationship between the two entities than before the discontinuation of membership.
Not only that, but it appears that one of the reasons the district does not want to end its relations with the development lobby, is that it has in some ways become used to and perhaps even dependent on its help to function.
By offering crucial technical and other expertise to councillors and in particular district staff, the development lobby has positioned itself to have a certain leverage over the municipality through the dynamics of this power arrangement, one that is clearly open to potential abuse. The type of leverage created by such a lopsided relationship between lobby and state could never have been achieved through traditional lobbying.
If it turns out that the District has become dependent on the development lobby to function, then that situation could be considered a form of so called "state capture" and is a clear danger to the integrity and sovereignty of local democracy.
It is clearly in the public's democractic interests to avoid the possibility of the potential dangers of such a scenario.
To rectify the current situation vis-à-vis the relationship between the two entities and to restore the power of constituents to the forefront of local democracy, we the signed call upon the District of Saanich to immediately cease its relationships and collaboration with the Urban Development Institute and to make it official policy to cease paying public money to not only the UDI, but to any lobby for that matter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes: Signatures for this petition are to be solely by residents of Saanich.
Please do not donate to the petition, as it is a local petition and promoting it by donation will not make it targeted locally. Instead, please share it to your friends and family for free.
The photo at top is of Royal Bay, which although it is not in the District of Saanich illustrates a potential for similar developments in Saanich.
Sources:
(Note: Although there is a lobby registry for lobbying of the Provincial Government, no such lobby registry exists for Saanich at the Municipal level, making lobby activities far less transparent than they should be in an open democracy on the local level).
https://www.saanichnews.com/business/saanich-applies-to-join-chamber-of-commerce/
Document:
DISTRICT OF SAANICH
MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING
HELD AT THE SAANICH MUNICIPAL HALL, 770 VERNON AVENUE
MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2019
The previous petition to withdraw Saanich's UDI membership: https://www.change.org/p/withdraw-the-district-of-saanich-from-development-lobby-membership?redirect=false
Video of the March 13 Council Meeting, whereby council unanimously voted to discontinue its UDI membership (The deliberations began at 4:57:20):
https://saanich.ca.granicus.com/player/clip/730?view_id=1&redirect=true&h=9ec7723ae1ff80e8032f8a2c00228305
For more information please contact:
SaanichPetition@mail.com
92
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Petition created on March 18, 2023