Is it time to say goodbye to ABCs?
When navigating municipal politics you will almost always come across Agencies, Boards, and Commissions (ABCs). These specialized bodies carry out very specific and highly important functions from housing to policing at the local and regional level. As a firm believer that local communities should be granted more independence, I am inclined to ask: do we even need ABCs? These specialized bodies prevent local governments from establishing unified budgets, priorities, and policies. They are essentially invisible to the general public and make significant choices without enough local supervision and responsibility.
ABCs often argue that a certain service should be shielded from local politics due to the service’s importance or complexity or because it would result in conflicts of interest or favouritism if councillors were given direct authority over the service. In other instances, this is presented as a justification for efficiency: by isolating certain functions from councillors who may obstruct or excessively control them, activities such as policing may be carried out with a corporate approach. That sounds great in theory, but ABCs are littered with a host of issues.
We have the problem of fragmentation. No one entity or agency will be able to make cohesive choices for the city as a whole if we establish local ABCs to administer specific responsibilities. We would be better served by establishing a government with broad powers (i.e. municipal council or provincial government) that have the necessary authority to make policy choices in a variety of domains and with the community’s best interests in mind.
We also have the issue of ambiguous lines of accountability. It’s pretty easy to credit or blame a council if a certain decision falls within their responsibility but this doesn’t apply to local ABCs. To whom can we hold accountable for a unilateral board decision? To whom can we complain? ABCs are so far removed from the standard lines of accountability that many consider them separate entities from the government. Navigating the complicated lines of responsibility can be confusing to a well-trained eye and downright impenetrable to the layperson. This has led to a framework of municipal policymaking that fails to meet any reasonable standard of democratic accountability.
I believe that given the aforementioned limitations is time to remove ABCs or, at the very least, raise the legislative bar for establishing new organizations.
