The City of New Westminster will consider ways to enhance opportunities for folks with young families to serve on city council.
On Monday, council approved a motion from councillors Mary Trentadue and Nadine Nakagawa asking staff to report back on options for maternity and/or parental leave for local elected officials following the birth or adoption of a child.
“I was on city council at one time when I had a newborn. I did not have a child, I adopted my son, but I still had many of the same pressures that a new parent would have and tried to figure out how I would balance being a new parent and maintain my commitment on city council,” Trentadue said. “At the time I had an accommodating city council, but that is not always the case, and I do know that.”
According to Trentadue, there is no maternity or parental leave available to elected officials in local governments under the Community Charter or the Local Government Act. If a local politician becomes a parent during their time in office and wishes to take a leave to support their transition to parenthood, she said they must get the approval from their colleagues by means of a city council or school board resolution under the Community Charter.
“If a leave request is not granted, than the elected official risks being disqualified from holding office if more than three consecutive meetings are missed,” she said.
Trentadue noted that the New Westminster school district recently moved a similar motion.
“In my opinion, municipal councils and regional district boards are intended to be representative governing bodies, but they rarely reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. Women, gender-diverse peoples, younger demographics, racialized peoples and those termed diverse economic backgrounds are typically under-represented in local government,” she said.’
Although there is limited disaggregated data about the diversity of elected officials in local governments, Trentadue said data from Civic Info BC shows that only 30 % of all candidates who ran in the 2018 civic elections in B.C. were female.
Trentadue said she’s looking forward to having staff report back on the opportunities for this kind of a policy and how the city can make this work more attractive to all people, especially parents who are considering having children sometime before or during a council term.
Last week, the New Westminster school board approved a new maternity and parental leave policy for board members. Trustees will be entitled to a six-month paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child.
Removing systemic barriers
Nakagawa said she has no doubt her council colleagues would be open to supporting a council member wanting to take a leave after becoming a parent, but she’s heard of cases in other cities where leaves have not been granted to council members or school trustees.
“It’s a really hard decision. If you want to have a family or something confronts you – there’s lots of reasons why people end up having children in their lives; some of it is planned and some of it is unplanned. I think we should be granting it by right,” she said. “This is a legacy that we should leave for future councils in order to allow people who are young parents or considering being parents or may end up adopting a child – you never know what happens.”
Coun. Patrick Johnstone said New Westminster isn’t the first community in B.C. to consider this type of policy, but it’s only been considered by a few cities.
“When I think about removing systemic barriers to the work of representative government this is often an overlooked area, and it is important,” he said. “I also strongly support us having it baked into strong policy guidance, so that people who are considering this work aren’t going into it uncertain about what their rights are and this isn’t something that just exists at the whim of council. I think it’s too important for that. This is a basic rights issue.”
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr suggested the city should pursue this issue through the province so changes can be made to the Local Government Act. He also recommended it be sent to the Lower Mainland Local Government Association, the Union of B.C. Municipalities and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for their support.
“It should be a national right,” he said.
Mayor Jonathan Cote said he’s seen firsthand some of the challenges that come with being a parent of young children while serving on council, having had three children during his time on city council.
“It can be a barrier to doing this type of work and I think we need to do everything we can to remove those barriers and make sure we are encouraging people at this stage of life of young families to participate in elected officials roles,” he said. “Anything that can be done in that regard should be supported.”
Cote suggested staff could also consider additional supports that could be provided for elected officials with young families. He noted that Coun. Jaimie McEvoy once brought forward a motion that the city provide some child-care supports to help elected officials who have young families and must often attend civic duties on evenings and weekends.
“At that time there was quite a bit of community pushback,” he recalled. “But I think this discussion has evolved over the past 10 years, and I think people better recognize and understand the pressures and even the need of having a variety of different voices on council and people of different age backgrounds to provide that perspective. But to do that, I think we need to remove the barriers, and we need to provide the supports.”
From the archives
In early 2011, McEvoy proposed the city cover the costs for council members needing child care while attending conferences, and official meetings and functions (which were pre-approved by council) to a maximum of $40 a day. McEvoy proposed the motion after attending conferences on the city's behalf and finding he was one of the youngest people in the room.
At the time, the city estimated the cost would be about $3,500 annually if all seven members of city council had children. Because Cote, then a councillor, was the only parent of young children on council, it was expected to cost the city about $500 a year.
A few weeks after bringing the motion forward, McEvoy rescinded the proposal because of the community’s negative reaction to the proposal. He said it had been intended to help make it accessible for all people to hold public office, including people with families and single parents.
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