A staff recommendation for a public survey and consultant’s support was given the green light by the By-law and Planning committee this past week. The approved activities are planned to prepare for an initial meeting of the Ad Hoc Procedural By-law Review committee in January.
During a report to the committee, municipal clerk, Natalie Bray, explained, “we are looking to start those meetings in January, mainly just because we are in the middle of budget process and so staff and council will be having additional meetings already.”
Earlier, during the Public Input Session, local resident, Mike Thomas, addressed the committee saying, “I welcome the opportunity to see this come forward. It is something that all the members of council ran on two years ago.”
Question and answer
“We need to be able to have a dialogue,” Thomas said as he expressed concern about a lack of a “question and answer” mechanism in committee and council meetings.
“The public - invested members of the community … we’re prevented from doing that. And the reason I say dialogue is because there’s no ‘question and answer,’” he said.
Regarding question and answer, committee chair, Councillor Norman Mann later commented, “that has always been, in some respects, on some of the councils I’ve sat on, a bit of a challenge.”
“Some councillors are very uncomfortable having someone come to the podium and a question being asked and them not having the answer.”
“We just have to find a mechanism to manage that and create an understanding about the expectations and the process.”
‘We might as well turn this horseshoe around and face this wall’
“I think there is a place for that type of dialogue … because if we don’t have it, then we might as well turn this horseshoe around and face this wall,” Mann said.
"And I really don't think that's what any of us want to do," he added.
Delays to launch
Mann also noted that the start of the process was delayed due to reasons outside the committee’s control and mentioned in the clerk’s report.
Two paths – in-house or consultant-supported
Bray’s report offered two paths. An “in-house review done by the clerk’s department in consultation with the ad hoc procedural by-law review committee,” a process Bray estimated to take approximately seven months.
The second option, support with a consultant, is estimated to take approximately three months.
Other council members weigh in
Councillor Merrill Seidel, a member of the committee, commented “we can still share that with the public and everything about that, and we can make changes.” He added he was in favour of “three months instead of the seven months. I’d like to get this done sooner than later.”
Mayor Andrew Wannan said, I also agree that three months is better than seven and then there’s less strain on staff as well.”
“If it’s within a budget with no added costs to our budget … that’s awesome as well,” he said. Wannan also inquired about the consultant’s qualifications.
Describing the process, Bray said, “we’d like to get the public input out now. There’s surveys. We’ll have feedback online; in the mailer. We’ll advertise, and then through now to December, the consultant would be reviewing our current procedural by-law."
Public consultation
During the summer of 2023, City staff and council contracted a consultant to conduct a public consultation process prior to finalizing Elliot Lake’s new strategic plan. The public provided dozens of suggestions however, almost all were not incorporated in the final Strategic Plan 2023.
Before calling the vote, Mann noted that, “all we’re doing is starting the process, beginning the initial meeting in January, and starting the public consultation.”
The vote carried.