Richmond Centre-Marpole MP Chak Au.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Nearly nine months after being elected federally, Conservative MP Chak Au has submitted his resignation from his other job as a municipal councillor in Richmond, B.C.
His resignation will take effect Feb. 1.
Mr. Au has served as a city councillor since 2011, and was elected as a member of Parliament for the British Columbia riding of Richmond Centre-Marpole in April.
After being elected federally, he said he was going to wait to resign from his municipal role until at least January, according to Richmond News, which then reported last month that he had decided to stay on until the city’s fall election.
Responding to a Jan. 11 inquiry from The Globe and Mail, a spokesperson for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s office, Katy Merrifield, said Mr. Au planned to resign after receiving confirmation from the city council that there would be no by-election.
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The B.C. Local Government Act says that a city council may decide not to have a by-election if a vacancy occurs after Jan. 1 in a year that a general election is taking place.
On Jan. 19, the council passed a motion to not have a by-election if any councillor resigned in an election year. Mr. Au sent his resignation letter to Mayor Malcolm Brodie on Jan. 23.
Mr. Au said that after the Richmond News published its story about his plan to stay on, people reached out to him to say he should not stretch himself too thin and that he had achieved his goal of avoiding a by-election.
“Over the holiday ... I gave another thought, a second thought to the original decision,” he said Monday. “I decided that, yes, perhaps this is the right time to leave.”
He said that if he resigned before January, it would have triggered a by-election that could cost “close to $1-million” to choose an interim councillor who would serve for about a year.
“So, is there a better way to spend that money? I believe so,” he said, adding council benefits from his experience when he is in the role.
Mr. Au said he donated his net municipal salary to local charities. When asked if he would claim those donations on his taxes, he said he would consult his accountant.
He said he did not keep the municipal role for financial reasons, adding he has previously refused to accept salary increases because he thinks they can be unfair to taxpayers.
While some provinces, such as Alberta and Ontario, prevent people from being an MP and a city councillor at the same time, British Columbia does not.
The Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’s Office has said that there is nothing in the Conflict of Interest Code for MPs that prohibits members who are not ministers or parliamentary secretaries from engaging in outside activities as long as they can fulfill the obligations of those roles. They must, however, disclose any outside sources of income to the commissioner’s office.