Can a municipality's elected mayor be disqualified from office for voting on a bylaw in which it is alleged he has a pecuniary interest?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Conibear v. Dahling, 2010 BCSC 985 (CanLII):
In Fairbrass v. Hansma, 2009 BCSC 878, aff’d 2010 BCCA 319, Mr. Justice Rogers considered whether the mayor of Spallumcheen should be disqualified from office because he participated in meetings and voted on a bylaw in which it was alleged he had a pecuniary interest. The bylaw would have permitted rezoning of certain parcels of land, which would then allow the owners of those parcels to apply to subdivide. The mayor held one such parcel which was too small to subdivide, but his two sons each held parcels which were large enough to subdivide. Despite the bylaw, owners of such parcels would still have to apply to rezone their lands and then apply to subdivide. Rogers J. outlined the steps in his analysis to determine whether the mayor should be disqualified:
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