Whereas the Local Government Act and Community Charter do not provide maternity and parental leave rights to elected officials; And whereas the absence of maternity and parental leave for local elected officials specifically disadvantages young and female candidates running for office and, hence, is a systemic barrier to attracting more diverse and representative candidates to local government: Therefore, be it resolved that prior to the next local government elections in 2022, UBCM work with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and the Gender Equity Office to amend the Local Government Act and the Community Charter to establish common minimum entitlements for maternity and parental leave for elected officials in BC following the birth or adoption of a child, but allows flexibility for local governments to exceed said minimum entitlements should they choose to.
Ministry of Municipal Affairs In response to a similar resolution in 2016 2016-B99, the Province set out the complex policy considerations that would require analysis to establish a uniform maternity and parental leave framework for local elected officials. Those included the existing legal and policy rules around employee leave; whether elected officials can be considered employees under the Employment Standards Act for these purposes; and other implications that could flow from elected officials being considered employees given their collective status as councils and boards as employers. Since then, the Province has observed an increase in the number of local governments that have adopted their own specific policies to allow elected officials to go on maternity or parental leave. The Province continues to favour an approach that allows individual communities to determine policies related to various types of leave under existing local government legislation, just as local governments determine remuneration and other benefits for local elected officials. In that way, local governments can continue to develop policies that best account for circumstances in their communities.