Nosy PG City Council Is Fine
At its regular Monday night meeting, Prince George City Council spent about 40 minutes debating provincial minimum wage policy. Why? This was the question asked of me by the CKPG-TV news team. Shouldn’t a local government stick to local government matters?
I do think it is curious that so much time would be spent by this Council on debating whether BC’s minimum wage should be increased. That’s because there are so many other issues seemingly closer to city affairs. That list includes the usual suspects like downtown revitalization and potholes. But also getting busy with Canada Winter Games 2015 planning (Prince George is the host city). And borrowing for a bridge and road improvements!
But it’s no surprise to me that local governments 
may sometimes poke their noses into areas they don’t so obviously belong:
A council may receive communications from residents and organizations, and should deal with those. It’s sometimes the case such correspondence is not directly related to city business. So, even if a letter is noted as being received, with instructions that it will be forwarded to a senior level of government, that’s what they should do.
A council can spend some time sending a message: Well, by debating the minimum wage, and even coming up with a position on that, we could take this as an expression of the views of the city as translated by its elected representatives. It’s kind of like lobbying up the food chain of government levels.
Historically, Prince George City Councils have taken on more than the typical local government role, which may be unique:
They have made their business areas of constitutional jurisdiction that are the responsibility of senior levels of government. The rationale is usually a good one: that what’s happening “above them” affects them where they are. The best example in Prince George relates to city officials and the Mayor and Council piggybacking on to provincial efforts to expand trade and tourism with China. We can and should demand regular and transparent evidence that value-for-money assessments are happening for these trade missions and other related activities. But any potential benefits are likely benefits for the City of Prince George. And thus a city councilor can get a trip to Beijing.
Overall, we know Canada has three levels of government (federal, provincial and local). A clear division of powers would be handy so each level of government could just play in their own room. But the Prince George City Council talking up the provincial minimum wage also illustrates how interconnected governments in a federal system are and must be. Hopefully, that means working together, which alas, is not always the case.
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