Latest news with #LocalGovernmentAct
Business Recorder
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
‘Punjab to review PFC Award after new LG Act's implementation'
LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman on Tuesday said that a new Local Government Act is being introduced, and once implemented, the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) Award will be reviewed. While responding to Amjad Ali Javed in Punjab Assembly Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman said that PML-N has always stood in favour of Local Government rights. Earlier, Amjad Ali Javed complained that his committee cannot even pay electricity bills. Criticizing the corrupt state of banks, he said employees are not receiving their salaries. He questioned the Finance Minister, asking how much longer it will take to receive the Provincial Finance Commission Award (PFC) Award after eight years of waiting. 'Can the Finance Minister provide a clear timeframe?' he asked. PML (N) MPA Ahmed Ahsan Iqbal while speaking on the floor of the House said that Secretary of Local Government is saying that the current situation id extremely dire. Hr also said that the Local Government has no funds left. He emphasized that the responsibilities assigned by the federation to the provinces should similarly be delegated by the provinces to municipal committees, but institutions are not receiving their due rights. He raised the question of which establishment is obstructing the implementation of third-tier governance. The session started 1 hour 46 minutes late under the chair of the Acting Speaker Malik Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar. During a session of the Punjab Assembly, government member Mumtaz Ali Chang delivered a fiery speech, demanding that the Crime Control Department (CCD) conduct operations in the Kacha area. He highlighted a recent incident in Nawazabad where a man named Hamza was killed, two others were injured, and one went missing due to dacoit firing. Chang stated, 'First, clean your own house. The CCD should also establish a unit in the Kacha area.' He further demanded the formation of a committee to investigate the killings of innocent people and the registration of false cases against them. Asserting that 'justice will restore the Assembly's dignity,' Chang defended his role as a public servant, stating that he actively participates in welfare work. He praised the Chief Minister of Punjab for establishing the CCD, which has reduced fear in areas previously considered inaccessible. He also commended the peace festival organized by the Punjab Governor in the Kacha area on the 11th of this month. Chang questioned why the CCD and Anti-Corruption Department were not conducting operations in the Katcha area despite having the authority. He alleged that police officials owning land in the region were sabotaging operations. 'If the Prime Minister and Chief Minister can go to jail, why can't the dacoits of Kacha?' he asked. He further claimed that reports indicate some notorious police officers are supporting dacoits in the area. Acting Speaker Zaheer Iqbal Channar sought a report on police officials occupying land in the Katcha area, directing that it be presented in the Assembly to identify those involved. He emphasized, 'Identify the dacoits occupying the Katcha area. Separately, Mumtaz Chang raised concerns about the loans and facilities being offered by Punjab Bank Rahim Yar Khan, stating, 'If we don't know what loans this bank is giving, how will the public know?' He urged the government to inform citizens through advertisements. Government member Ahmed Ahsan Iqbal criticized the Bank of Punjab during the session, stating that its reports are not being presented to the Public Accounts Committee. He said, 'The Bank of Punjab always resists in this matter,' adding that the Assembly has the right to know what privileges are being given to the bank's CEO. Meanwhile, the 26 suspended opposition members of the Punjab Assembly have been reinstated. This decision came as a result of successful negotiations between the government and the opposition following their suspension during the budget speech of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. Provincial Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mian Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman submitted a request in the assembly for the restoration of the opposition members, upon which Acting Speaker Punjab Assembly Zahr Iqbal Channar immediately ordered their reinstatement. The assembly secretariat also issued a notification confirming the restoration. According to details, on June 27, opposition members created a ruckus during the speech of Punjab Minister Maryam Nawaz, leading to verbal clashes and physical altercations. Following the incident, the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly suspended 26 opposition members for 15 sittings. Later, government members submitted four applications to the Speaker, requesting the Election Commission to issue disqualification notices against the opposition members. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The Age
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Look who's back – and with back pay after escaping conviction
That's due to Section 229 of the Local Government Act clause (6): 'A councillor who is no longer stood down under subsection (1) is entitled to their allowance, including any allowance previously withheld under subsection (4), unless the councillor is convicted of the offence.' Agirtan, a tax manager, pointed out at the time that her court-ordered donation was tax-deductible. We sought comment from her but didn't hear back. The council confirmed the back payment. And while she was suspended from the council, nothing could suspend her from social media during that period, which included a reference to her critics 'sucking each other off in the comments on the City of Kingston post'. Positively Trumpian in its eloquence. Back to the benches A mere 11 weeks after the May 3 election, federal parliament has returned. Everyone wanted to put their feet up after that gruelling election campaign, we guess. Or hike the Great Wall of China. The pollies slowly began to trickle back to Canberra, and on Sunday night, CBD's spies spotted Labor frontbenchers Murray Watt, Jenny McAllister and Tim Ayres enjoying a pre-sitting dinner at the restaurant Compa in the Canberra Centre. Expect more of that. During the downtime, CBD brought you several updates about the great staffer exodus, and had some sport at the expense of the PM's chief of staff, Tim Gartrell, for what we thought was his weirdly school-prefect attitude to his underlings oversharing happy snaps with the prime minister on social media. Obligations under the ministerial staff code of blah blah blah, you understand. We live in a Zoomer generation after all. If it is not posted on LinkedIn, did you even have a job? But maybe he had a point: word has reached CBD of a former staffer whose profile on the romantic-encounter social media site Hinge once included a selfie with … the prime minister. Anthony 'Aphrodisiac' Albanese. Somehow we don't think so. PvO's Hollow State The period following a federal election brings the inevitable flurry of political tomes by our various pundits. Last month, CBD revealed that formidable columnist Niki Savva would be releasing a new book, appropriately titled Earthquake, just in time to send seismic rumbles through various Liberal Party Christmases. Also getting in on the act is University of Western Australia politics professor and Daily Mail Australia political editor Peter van Onselen. His new book, The Hollow State: Power Without Purpose in Australian Politics, is due for an October release by niche right-leaning press Wilkinson Publishing. It feels a slight step down from Hachette, which published PvO's 2021 book on Scott Morrison, but then again, PvO's own recent career arc has been a little chaotic. He went from The Australian and Sky News to Network Ten and The Project before joining Daily Mail Australia last year. Van Onselen has been a pundit whose notable career highlights included instances of being prominently wrong (his 'kisses of death' were the stuff of legend), but even we were amused to find this 2022 headline: 'Does Peter van Onselen have the kiss of death? How political guru predicted the 'future of Australian politics' in a single photo ... and got it VERY wrong' published in, er, Daily Mail Australia. He quit as Network Ten's political editor in 2023, and was then successfully sued by his former employer for breaching a non-disparagement clause in his redundancy agreement (an agreement under which he trousered $165,000) by writing an article in The Australian calling the broadcaster 'the minnow of Australian television'. Loading To be fair, he was technically right about that one, as Ten's ratings and financial performance has shown, but in our experience the negative commentary in The Australian about Ten used to be inversely proportionate to how much of the network was owned by The Australian 's boss of bosses, Lachlan Murdoch. PvO told us his new book was some years in the making, a lament at the hollowing out of modern politics by those on both sides of the aisle that he hoped would be 'half-scholarly, half-populist'.
The Star
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Star
Community service for offences under Local Government Act not slavery, asserts Nga
KUALA LUMPUR: Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming has defended the proposal for community service as a penalty under the Local Government Act, stating it does not equate to slavery. Addressing the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (July 21), Nga emphasised that the Federal Constitution upholds basic human rights. "I beg to differ. The Federal Constitution guarantees basic human rights, but for offences that have been convicted in the court, it is not a form of slavery," he asserted while concluding the debate on amendments to the Local Government Act, which include introducing mandatory community service for littering offences. During the debate, Hassan Abdul Karim (PH-Pasir Gudang) expressed concerns that community service could be seen as a form of slavery and potentially unconstitutional. "According to the Bill, community service is defined as an unpaid job or service. I understand that any work that is not paid can bring an element of forced slavery," he argued, suggesting that some form of allowance be provided to avoid categorisation as slavery. The proposed Bill introduces subsection 104a(1), which empowers courts to issue a community service order for individuals convicted of breaching by-laws under the Act.
The Spinoff
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Spinoff
Councils under pressure as government pushes ‘back to basics' agenda
Increasingly loud demands that councils rein in spending have made for a fractious week between ministers and mayors, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. Ministers and mayors air out their differences The relationship between central and local government was extra prickly this week, with a fresh suite of reforms tabled in Wellington and ministers getting a somewhat frosty reception in Christchurch at the Local Government New Zealand conference. The Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill, which passed its first reading last night , will remove councils' legal responsibility to consider the 'four wellbeings' – social, cultural, environmental and economic – when making decisions. Instead, councils will be legally obliged to prioritise so-called 'core services' like water, roads and rubbish. Opening the conference, the prime minister pitched the changes as a return to basics, saying ratepayers wanted councils to '[prioritise] pipes over vanity projects'. But among the mayors gathered in Christchurch, frustration was palpable at the expectation that they somehow, as Newsroom's David Wiliams put it, 'achieve the triumvirate: upgrading infrastructure, holding down rates, and keeping debt in check'. Clutha mayor Bryan Cadogan said ministers refuse to admit they're demanding the impossible. 'The Government knows it, we know it, but we just keep on getting this.' Councils fed up with policy whiplash That frustration is compounded by the sense that councils are forever adapting to the whims of central government. The four wellbeings, for instance, have now been added and removed from the Local Government Act four times since 2002 – inserted twice by Labour governments, stripped out by National. 'Every time we have an election, there's a flip-flop,' said LGNZ president Sam Broughton. As Shanti Mathias reports this morning in The Spinoff, he and others also pushed back at the government's suggestion that councils are blowing money on 'nice-to-haves' like bike lanes and 'fancy toilets'. In his own district of Selwyn, Broughton said, 80% of spending goes to key infrastructure like pipes and roads, with the rest funding services that communities still see as essential. Coalition partners not convinced on rate caps One of the other changes introduced in the new bill is benchmarking – mandatory, comparative performance reporting on council spending, rates, debt and outcomes. While this information is already publicly available, the law will now require councils to collate it into reports. Deputy PM David Seymour is a fan: he told the Christchurch conference that 'some healthy competition between councils is long overdue'. He also cheered the removal of the wellbeing requirements, which he dubbed the Puppy Dogs and Ice Cream Bill when they were proposed by Labour, for the second time, in 2017. However Seymour later expressed reservations about local government minister Simon Watts' proposed cap on rates increases. 'Don't cap your income until you've got your spending under control,' he warned. NZ First leader Winston Peters was even blunter, RNZ's Lillian Hanly reports. 'Doctor, heal thyself,' Peters opined, arguing that central government's own spending record left it in no position to preach to others about fiscal restraint. Tikanga or 'red tape'? Seymour's speech also ignited controversy with his attack on what he called 'ceremonial chanting' in the consenting process – a reference to clauses in resource consents requiring karakia or other tikanga Māori. As Māni Dunlop reports in Te Ao Māori News, the line was in his prepared remarks but not in the speech he delivered at the conference. However Seymour doubled down later that day, claiming that developers were backed into a corner over karakia, believing they had to allow their use to avoid controversy. The comments brought Seymour his second rebuke of the week from Peters: 'Why am I responding to what David Seymour doesn't know? Excuse me,' said the NZ First leader, adding that he had spent much of his career defending the 'right protocol'. Karakia, he said, are 'appropriate when used correctly'. Writing in The Spinoff, Liam Rātana notes that such clauses are typically inserted by mutual agreement to build respectful relationships with mana whenua, and argues that Seymour's complaints are based on misunderstandings of both tikanga and how consent conditions actually work. 'While highlighting these clauses as unnecessary 'red tape' and 'roadblocks', Seymour says his changes will put 'power back with communities',' Liam writes. 'I wonder which communities he's talking about?'
Vancouver Sun
15-07-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
B.C. court tells Langley Township it can't collect certain developer fees. The fallout is uncertain
A recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found a developer is not obligated to pay millions in fees to the Township of Langley to help fund community amenities does not necessarily mean that other developers are off the hook. In late June, a B.C. judge decided that Langley Township's policy for collecting community amenity contributions (or CACs) — which are intended to support the building of things such as parks, libraries, child-care facilities and recreational centres — is invalid because it is a 'mandatory amenity payment regime beyond Langley's legal authority.' Lorval Developments, together with Martini Film Studios, wants to build a massive sound studio with 16 stages on 70 acres of land they have assembled. They sued the township after pushing back against what they said would have been between $32 million and $39 million in CACs in order to proceed with building the 735,000-sq.-ft. film complex project. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'The CAC policy represents more than administrative guidance,' Justice Simon Coval wrote in his decision. 'Read as a whole, it indicates a mandatory fee regime, in that it suggests the specified contributions will generally be required as a condition of rezoning approval. It is therefore invalid for lacking the requisite statutory authority.' Lorval told Postmedia through its lawyer, Peter Kenward, that while the court's decision is about Langley Township's CAC policy, 'It does have broader implications, because its reasoning is rooted in the provisions of the Local Government Act and Community Charter and a number of court decisions, which are applicable to most municipalities across the province.' The township has said it will appeal the ruling, and has until July 20 to do so. In the meantime, some developers have agreed to pay CACs as part of their rezoning processes despite the ruling that the policy for collecting them is invalid, according to Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward. 'Even since the court case, multiple developers have agreed to make community amenity contributions to make Langley a better community. Lorval is obviously not one of these companies.' Lorval didn't reply by deadline in response to this comment. Langley Township has required the developers who wish to proceed with paying the CACs sign agreements acknowledging the court ruling and that they have received legal advice and will forgo any future litigation. Anne McMullin, CEO of the Urban Development Institute, which represents developers and builders, said some developers have signed these agreements in order to continue with rezoning application processes that are already underway because they don't want to risk further delays. 'They know you have got to get (their applications) through. The costs are going up. The longer they wait, they'll miss the market and (have to deal with) cost escalation. So they say, 'Fine, I'll make it work, plug my nose and sign it,'' said McMullin. The court decision comes as the provincial government has been trying to introduce a new way for municipalities to collect fees to fund public amenities that it calls amenity cost charges or ACCs. These ACCs have mechanisms, such as set rates for various kinds of units and money targeted to specific community benefits or projects, to 'ensure transparency and cost certainty,' according to the province. It is intended as a way to eliminate CACs and avoid real estate developers and municipal governments spending years negotiating what fees get paid to support the building of public amenities. Municipalities charge these CACs in exchange for granting the right to build more density or to change what a piece of land can be used for and potentially increase its value. Some municipalities, such as North Vancouver, Mission, Pitt Meadows, Abbotsford, Burnaby and Coquitlam, have brought in ACC bylaws and started the new regimes, while others are still exploring and consulting their communities. There is no deadline for municipalities to adopt using ACCs and they are not required by legislation to do so. Woodward said Langley Township is exploring ACCs. In the meantime, it approved a new interim CAC policy in early July, after the court ruled its existing policy was invalid. The new version allows staff to discuss with applicants the prospect of making community amenity contributions, negotiate with them on a case-by-case basis, or allow CACs to either be raised by the applicants or be included as part of rezoning negotiations. McMullin acknowledged the current situation is 'messy' and that UDI will be examining it into the fall. Woodward said other municipalities that want to continue collecting CACs may want to use a release agreement the way his township has with developers 'to insulate themselves from court cases.' The Union of B.C. Municipalities said it does not have an opinion on whether this ruling impacts the ability of local governments to collect CACs as the transition to the new ACC regime continues. Regardless of what fee structure is used, 'development cost tools shield property taxpayers from paying for new development,' UBCM president Trish Mandewo said in a statement. 'Without effective tools to recover development costs, property taxpayers would face hefty increases to pay for new infrastructure to support growth. The principle of 'development paying for development' is long established in B.C., and steps that erode this principle will impact affordability for all homeowners in the long run.' jlee-young@
