Proposed New Procedure By-law Regarding Scheduling of and Timing of Deputations to Council

Good evening Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Councillors.

I am here today to address the proposed new Procedure By-law and the related Clerk’s Report CR-002-24 on the proposed By-law.

I will be focusing particularly on the changes being proposed for both scheduled and open deputations outlined in the Report as well as the rationale for the changes outlined in the Staff Report.

Current Procedures

Under the current Procedural By-law, the rules relating to deputations are as follows:

· Every third week (with some exceptions), there is a regular Council Meeting followed by a Committee of the Whole Meeting.

· At each of those meetings there is a period of 20 minutes allocated to open deputations with a maximum of 5 minutes for each deputation and up to 2 scheduled deputations of not more than 10 minutes in length. This amounts to a total time of 40 minutes allocated for deputations at each off the regular Council Meeting and the Committee of the Whole or an aggregate of 80 minutes over both meetings.

· Open deputations must address matters on the agenda of the meeting at which they are made. However scheduled deputations can be on any subject matter (with some limited exceptions).

Staff Concerns and Recommendation

The Clerk’s Report indicates that the current procedures create additional workload on Staff relating to scheduling and in addressing timing questions from the public as well as some minor inconvenience to debutants or other members of the public from delays in the commencement of the Committee of the Whole meetings.

To address these Staff concerns, the Clerk’s Report recommends changes to eliminate both open and scheduled deputations at the Committee of the Whole meeting with the result that all deputations, both open and scheduled, would be made only at a regular Council Meeting.

Response to Clerk’s Report

While we do not want to create an undue and unnecessary workload for Township Staff, answering email and phone calls is part of their responsibility.

The issues raised in the Clerk’s Report relating to meeting delays or people attempting to make open deputations the wrong meeting are in my view minor, not overly disruptive and are a normal part of the so called “messiness” of the democratic process.

We should not be prioritizing these kinds of so-called efficiencies where the result adversely affects the rights and opportunities of the public to make deputations to Council.

Beyond this, the proposed changes would create significant negative changes to the current process which would reduce and adversely affect the current existing rights of Tiny residents to make representations to the Council on important issues.

Open Delegations to Committee of the Whole

Currently, open deputations can be made to the Committee of the Whole on items on the current agenda. The Clerk’s Report proposes eliminating this opportunity so that deputations on such items could only be made at the next meeting of Council, which would be three weeks later.

This is an important and, in my view, a negative change.

Items coming to Council are initially considered, debated and voted on by Council at Committee of the Whole. Under the proposal, Members of Council would not have the benefit of public input in these items before they discuss and make their initial determination on them. It is only human nature that it is more difficult to convince Council to change or reverse the public position they have taken than it is if the information is provided to them before they do so.

Reduction Time Available for Deputations

Let me now move to the most major negative change proposed by the Clerk’s Report, which would be the significant reduction in the total time available for deputations. The Report proposes eliminating both open and scheduled deputations at the Committee of the Whole but notably does not make a corresponding increase in deputation time at the regular Council Meeting. This would reduce the available time by 40 minutes or 50% of the time now available for public input at a combination of the Committee of the Whole and the Regular Council meetings.

This is clearly the wrong message at the wrong time. At a time when this Council is being criticized for failing to seek or listen to input from the Community in connection with the Budget, the new Township Hall or the Library issue, the final nail in this coffin would be eliminating half of the time available to the Community to delegate Council, especially for the dubious reasons in the Clerk’s Report.

This is a very significant change which would be obvious to even the casual observer. It was the first thing that I Iooked for when I first read the Clerk’s Report. I was surprised and disappointed that it was not highlighted or even referred to in the Clerk’s Report.

Proposals

In light of the above, I would strongly suggest that you reject the recommendations in the Clerk’s Report. The current deputation arrangements have been in place for more than 10 years and for the most part work very well, and the Tiny Community is both comfortable and satisfied with them. The major negatives from implementing the Staff recommendations outlined above and the more negative message that would be sent to the Tiny Community more than offset the minor and questionable “efficiencies” outlined in the Report.

If you wish to create some of the so-called efficiencies without the negatives I have noted, I suggest the following structure:

· Eliminate both open and scheduled delegations at the Committee of the Whole Meeting.

· At each regular Council meeting allow up to 4 scheduled delegations of not more than 10 minutes in length and 40 minutes for up to 8 open delegations of not more than minutes in length.

· Allow open delegations to address items on the agenda of both the regular Council meeting and the following Committee of the Whole meeting.

I believe that either alternative will address the concerns that I have raised in my presentation and should be acceptable to both Staff and the Tiny community.

Thank you, and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.