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Regional districts of British Columbia |
The Canadian Province of British Columbia is divided into regional districts. Like counties in nearly all states of the United States and in Eastern Canada, regional districts serve as the local government in areas not incorporated into a municipality and in certain regional affairs of shared interest to the municipalities. In those predominantly rural areas, regional districts provide services such as land-use planning, building inspection and fire protection. Regional districts also provide some services, such as solid-waste management and emergency management, to their entire territory, including municipalities. They are not the equivalent of counties, however, and their powers and democratic mandate are substantially weaker.
Regional districts are governed by boards of directly and indirectly elected directors. Municipalities appoint directors to represent their populations (usually the mayors), while residents of unincorporated areas elect directors directly. The votes of directors from heavily populated areas sometimes count more than the votes of directors from sparser areas. For example, both North Saanich and Metchosin appoint one director to the Capital Regional District board of directors, but the vote of North Saanich's director counts three times as much as the vote of Metchosin's appointee.1
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The current districts, shown with the location of their head offices:
The following regional districts were dissolved in December 1995, and amalgamated largely into the newly formed Fraser Valley Regional District:
The western half of Dewdney-Alouette, comprising Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, was incorporated into the Greater Vancouver Regional District (now Metro Vancouver). Mission and the unincorporated areas east to the Chehalis River were incorporated into the Fraser Valley Regional District.
This amalgamation took place due to the western part of Dewdney-Alouette had become essentially a suburb of Vancouver and would be better served by being within Metro Vancouver. The Central Fraser Valley RD would be nearly completely dominated by the newly amalgamated City of Abbotsford, bringing its role as into question; similarly the remnant of Dewdney-Alouette would be dominated by Mission. Given the rapid growth being experienced in the Fraser Valley at the time, and expected to continue for the foreseeable future, the creation of the Fraser Valley Regional District was seen as the best option.citation needed
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