Did the District of Sooke violate its own Motion? The District went ahead and renewed its paid membership with a registered lobbying organization for development and real estate interests, without publicly meeting with it first to ascertain the functions of the organization.

By Sasha Izard
March 11, 2025

Exactly one year ago, on March 11, 2024, the District of Sooke Mayor and Council passed a Motion to postpone deciding whether or not the District renew its membership with the Urban Development Institute (UDI). The almost unanimous motion was “THAT Council postpone the decision until Council has received a presentation from the Urban Development Institute, prior to membership renewal.”

One year later, that has not happened, yet the District renewed its membership with the UDI during that time.

Mayor and Council were under the impression from staff that evening (March 11, 2024) that the District’s UDI membership had only recently been renewed and would last for the year. This was not correct. The membership had been renewed the previous year on July 20, 2023, as I learned today from Sooke’s finance department, and it was to expire only 4 months after the March 11, 2024 meeting.

Instead, 4 months after the March 11, 2024 meeting, the District went ahead and renewed its UDI membership for 2024-2025 anyway, without having received a presentation from the Urban Development Institute, prior to membership renewal. The motion had been: “So that council postpone the decision until Council has received a presentation from UDI prior to membership renewal.”

When staff learned that they were incorrect about a recent membership renewal (they were under the impression of a recent renewal at the meeting), why did they go ahead and renew the membership anyway 4 months afterward, without direction from the elected officials to do so and without them having met with the UDI to discuss the issue?

One of the key points of discussion for the agenda item on March 11, 2024 was that the elected officials had not been voting for the District to be a paying member of the registered lobbying organization, (as per the discussion they apparently hadn’t been aware previously, that the UDI is a registered lobbying group) and yet staff had signed them up unilaterally without their permission. Why had staff now gone and unilaterally signed the District up to be a paying member again, without the permission of the elected officials, when the officials were in the process of deciding whether or not renew the membership, as per the motion?

Minutes of agenda Item 11 at the March 11, 2024 Sooke Council Meeting:

Regular Council – 11 Mar 2024 – Minutes – Html

The receipt for renewing the District of Sooke’s membership with the UDI Capital Region. I was informed by Sooke’s finance department that it was paid on July 3, 2024.

Previously, on April 8, 2024 I transcribed the discussion around agenda item 11. that took place at the March 11, 2024 Sooke Council meeting in the following article:

Now, or Never? Sooke Mayor and Council, Upon Learning that the District is a Paying Member of a Registered Lobbyist Organization for Development and Real Estate, Face ‘Tough Decision’ as to Whether or not the District Should Leave it. – CRD Watch Homepage

The following is the section of that discussion that relates to the topic at hand and shows the devising and passing of the motion:

Cllr. McMath: When is the last time we paid the membership fee?

Staffer: That’s what I was just checking, I was, I was just gonna confirm, I believe we’ve already renewed the membership for this year, so.

Cllr. McMath: So, there’s no rush here, yep.

Mayor Tait: So is it po, so OK, so it’s renewed for the year. So then, can councillor, is it easier just to def, to call the question on the motion, or withdraw the motion?

Staffer: Well, there are certainly a few options that council can take, depending on the direction. I do hear a couple pieces of this. If it were something that Council would like to consider at a future date, we could have a motion to defer, or postpone to a future meeting.

Lay on the table is essential just for, we don’t know when we’re going to talk about this, and it’s going to be later this meeting, someone stepped out of the meeting, we lay it on the table. So, the appropriate verbiage would be to postpone to either a future meeting date, or a year from now, or to a time before the membership renewal. So that is certainly one option that Council has. Another option is to simply withdraw the motion, or we can consider the motion as it stands.

Mayor Tait: OK, so perhaps to postpone decision until Council has received a presentation from the UDI? And that could be sometime this year.

Received until council received a presentation…

Cllr. Bateman: ASAP

Mayor Tait: ASAP?

Cllr. Bateman: Yeah.

Mayor Tait: Well, we’ve renewed

Cllr. Bateman: We would like to see them as soon as they are available.

Mayor Tait: OK, well I’m just cognizant of, like we have, you know, just building it into the Council, so when I hear ASAP, I think, I think within a couple of meetings, but we also have delegations in the queue and other workshops and presentations from, you know prior to membership renewal, to membership renewal.

So that council postpone the decision until Council has received a presentation from UDI prior to membership renewal.

Does that make sense?

OK, who would, would anyone like to move the postponement?

OK, moved by St.Pierre and seconded by Councillor McMath. So, we’re postponing it until after we’ve received a presentation from the UDI.

OK?

All those in favour of the amendment?

[All councillors raise their hands, with the exception of Cllr. Bateman]

Mayor Tait: Anyone opposed? Councillor Bateman is opposed to the amendment, so now on the main amended motion.

Right, or?

Staffer: If may clarify,

Mayor Tait: No. So, this was not.

Staffer: so this was not an amendment, it was called a subsidiary motion, so that’s a motion that’s stacked on top of another motion that takes precedence.

Mayor Tait: OK

Staffer: So we don’t need to do a mean motion as amended, because it wasn’t an amendment.

Mayor Tait: Got it, so this is just a new motion to push it off, so I’ll call the question again.

All those in favour of the postponement?

[All councillors raise their hands, with the exception of Cllr. St.Pierre and Cllr. Bateman]

Mayor Tait: All those opposed?

Councillor Bateman is opposed. That carries.

Recent invoice and receipt for the District of Sooke’s last 2 UDI memberships renewals:

On March 10, 2025 I enquired of Sooke’s Financial Services:

What were the dates that these two UDI membership renewal invoices were paid by the District?

They promply responded: “The dates paid were July 20/23 & July 3/24”