VANCOUVER—One of Vancouver’s mayoral hopefuls is proposing stricter new conflict of interest rules that would apply not only to elected officials but to their spouses as well.

Kennedy Stewart, an NDP MP who is running as an independent mayoral candidate, said the proposed rules would be more like the stricter regulations that are already in place for federal politicians. A conflict of interest occurs when elected official makes a decision that could benefit themselves, friends, family members or business interests.

“With the conflict of interest rules we have federally, I sit down with the conflict of interest office, I proactively disclose everything every year, but so does my spouse,” Stewart said. “If there’s a public complaint, the commissioner will investigate.”

As is the case in federal politics, an independent B.C. conflict of interest commissioner investigates complaints but does not handle municipal complaints.

Stewart is also proposing a municipal lobbyist registry for Vancouver — a safeguard that politicians and democracy experts have been calling for years at the municipal level. The need for a municipal lobbyist registry recently came to the fore when details emerged about recent lobbying activities undertaken by Hector Bremner, a Vancouver city councillor who also intends to run for mayor before he became a councillor.

That prompted a conflict of interest complaint being filed against Bremner. His party, the Non-Partisan Association, recently rejected him as a mayoral nomination candidate in part because of those allegations, which have not yet been proven.

As an example of how the federal system works, Stewart said, Finance Minister Bill Morneau was investigated twice by the conflict of interest commissioner. He was cleared in one case but was found to be in a conflict in the second case and had to pay a fine.

“It protects the public, but it also protects officials because there’s often this lingering feeling that something’s not right and the commissioner can settle that,” Stewart said.

Stewart is also proposing that politicians and key city staff be prohibited from “accepting government contracts or lobbying for 12 months after leaving their positions.”

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said Stewart’s proposal is a step in the right direction but doesn’t go far enough. The proposed year-long ban after politicians or staff leave their positions isn’t long enough, he said, especially considering that city staff usually doesn’t change over the same way provincial cabinet ministry staff does after a party loses control of government. He’d like to see a ban of three to five years, depending on the position.

He also warned that the person investigating conflict of interest complaints needs to be truly independent. That’s not the case with Vancouver’s current system, where the mayor or deputy mayor appoints an investigator for each specific complaint.

Stewart is not the first politician to call for changes to municipal disclosure rules. Andrea Reimer, a Vision Vancouver councillor who is not running for re-election, made a motion over a year ago to ask the province to create a municipal lobbyist registry. In April, Reimer made a motion to require councillors to disclose who their consulting clients are.

Correction - May 25, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated Duff Conacher’s surname.

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