Organization of Governance
Local governments are represented by elected officials who exercise the powers and perform
the obligations of the local government. In a municipality, the governing body is the mayor and council.
However, there are other governing bodies depending on the organization and nature of the
local government or local authority.
Regional districts are governed by a board of directors that is composed of directors who are
elected from an electoral area, and directors who are appointed by, and from, member municipal councils.
The number of directors appointed from member municipal councils depends on the population of the
municipality. The chair of the regional district is elected by, and from, all of the directors
on the regional board.
The size of municipal councils generally increases with its population. In addition to the
mayor, there are 4, 6, 8 or 10 councillors. Council can reduce or increase the size of council
but a reduction requires the approval of electors.
Unique to the City of Vancouver is the fact that its Parks Board is
also directly elected. In some regional districts, some communities
in unorganized (electoral) areas of the regional district are
administered by directly elected local community commissions
established by the regional district.
Special purpose local authorities take a variety of forms. Of the
service-providers that pre-date the regional district system,
improvement districts are governed by a directly elected board of
trustees, and greater boards (i.e. the Greater Vancouver Water
District and the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage) are
governed by a board of directors appointed by and from member local
governments. Mountain resort associations function as societies for
the purpose of encouraging development of resort areas, and are
comprised of the owners of land in the area. Public libraries are
governed by boards, the organization and membership of which depends
on how the public library service is being delivered (i.e. by a
municipal library, a regional library district, a public library
association or an integrated library system). In all cases, there
are close links between the library board and the local government
for the area in which the library service is being provided.
Two local authorities have a dual provincial and local character.
For the University Endowment Lands, the Minister exercises powers
similar to that of a municipal council to govern the area
surrounding the University of British Columbia. For the Gulf Islands
area, the Islands Trust has 2 governing components: the Trust
Council, comprising all trustees for the trust area, both those
directly elected and those appointed by and from area
municipalities; and various local trust committees, comprising the
trustees that represent the local trust areas (i.e. non-municipal
islands) in the trust area.
As treaty and other agreements are negotiated among the Federal and
provincial governments and First Nations, various governing bodies
may be created. Their nature and organization will vary, depending
on the terms of the treaty, agreement or legislation under which
they are created (e.g. Sechelt Indian Government District Enabling
Act; Nisga’a Final Agreement;
Westbank First Nation Self Government Agreement).
In many cases, their link to existing local governments
and other local authorities is also covered.