B.C. MLA forced to quit ‘part-time' job as councillor under new law
A BC Conservative legislator has lost what she called her 'part-time' job as a councillor after a new law banning MLAs from also serving as municipal representatives came into effect.
Misty Van Popta represents Langley-Walnut Grove in the provincial legislature, but lost her job as a municipal councillor in the Township of Langley in the Fraser Valley on Thursday when the Eligibility to Hold Public Office Act came into effect and forced her to resign.
'I'm obviously disappointed, but not shocked,' she said after the passage of the law. 'When you see that bill being presented, and you know that the government has the balance of power, you know it is going to pass.'
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Van Popta was elected as councillor in 2022, but didn't step down after being elected to the legislature last year, drawing criticism from the provincial NDP.
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The NDP's Darlene Rotchford, who tabled the new law as a private member's bill, said legislators needed to give '110 per cent' to their jobs, and can't do that if they are trying to hold down another.
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Van Popta – whose photograph no longer appears on the township's website – said her decision to hold two elected offices at the same time had precedent and was always meant to be a 'temporary solution.'
Van Popta added that she was planning to resign as councillor in 2026, the year of the next municipal elections, to save her municipality the cost of a byelection.
The last general municipal election in the Township of Langley cost about $500,000.
Van Popta's Conservative colleague Heather Maahs quit her Chilliwack school board position after becoming an MLA last year. The school board byelection in March cost an estimated $100,000.
Van Popta said she felt that the NDP singled her out, and she was able to prove she could do both jobs.
'There is just no evidence to substantiate the fact that I haven't been working 100 per cent as an MLA,' she said.
She said that being a municipal councillor in her community with a population of about 162,000 was a 'part-time job.'
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Van Popta said being a councillor with the township is not the 'same thing as being a municipal councillor in the City of Vancouver' or other large community.
'I have demonstrated over the last seven months that it was doable,' she said of her two jobs.
Rotchford said the bill was not focused on anyone in particular, but meant to close a loophole.
'This is something that shouldn't be allowed,' Rotchford said in the legislature on Wednesday. 'We are ensuring that all (MLAs) are giving 110 per cent in closing that loophole, when you are an MLA in the province of British Columbia, similar to other provinces across the country.'
There is no rule preventing federal members of Parliament from serving as councillors.
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Richmond Coun. Chak Au was elected as an MP representing Richmond Centre-Marpole in April.
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