Yes, but only with a court order and only in exceptional
circumstances.
Section 100 of the Community Charter (the
"Act") requires council members to
disclose matters which are before Council in which they have a
pecuniary interest or other conflict and stipulates that they are
not to participate in discussion, vote, or attempt to influence the
voting on a matter in which they have a conflict of interest. If a
municipality cannot achieve the quorum necessary to vote on a
council matter because of conflicts of interest, section 129(4) of
the Act allows a municipality to apply to the Supreme Court for a
"without notice" order permitting council members to vote
on the matter despite their conflicts of interest. In the recent
case of
Port Clements (Village) (Re), 2015, BCSC 1675 , the
Honourable Madam Justice Harris clarified the scope of a
municipality's duty of disclosure under section 129(4) and the
process required to set aside an order issued under that
section.
