Corporate body

Regional District Review Committee

• Farmer Committee

1977-1978

The Regional District Review Committee of the Legislature was initiated on September 8, 1977, to review the regional district concept as it was being implemented in British Columbia. It was the first comprehensive review of regional districts since their inception. The committee members – Phillip Farmer, Rendina Hamilton of Penticton, Alfred O. Hood of Victoria, Daphne Phillips of Dawson Creek, and Ronald Thompson of Galiano – all had experience in local government in British Columbia. Farmer was named chair by agreement of the committee, and Brigadier-General E.D. Danby served as the committee’s executive secretary. Because of his leadership role, the Regional District Review Committee was also known as “The Farmer Committee.”

Appointed by Hugh Curtis, Minister of Municipal Affairs, pursuant to order-in-council Number 2888, the committee was authorized to examine:

1) the jurisdictional role of regional districts, including an examination of present and future functions and responsibilities;

2) the structural and administrative organization of regional districts including internal and external boundaries; the relationships between regional districts and Provincial, municipal and the citizens; and Provincial financial support policy for the regional districts; and

3) such other issues germane to the review of the regional district concept as may be appropriate.

To these ends, the committee was empowered to seek briefs from interested parties and hold public hearings at various locations throughout the province.

The Review Committee held 41 public hearings at which it received 366 written and verbal submissions and an additional 150 pieces of correspondence, including one from the Greater Vancouver Regional District. The responses revealed a diversity of issues, making the differences amongst the 29 regional districts quite evident.

After becoming ill in June 1978 following the conclusion of the committee’s public hearings, Farmer resigned the position of committee chair in September 1978, at which time Rendina Hamilton was appointed acting chair and later chair of the committee. The Committee's final report, released on October 31, 1978, recommended the regional district governance model be retained, and made a total of 52 suggestions for changes. After submission of the report to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Hugh Curtis, the committee was dissolved.