"Moving forward, we will try to do better," said Elliot Lake Mayor Andrew Wannan after a brief discussion of Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé letter informing council it had wrongfully closed a Finance and Administration Standing Committee meeting in December of last year.
The letter from the office of the Ombudsman, dated September 18, 2024, was received as information by Elliot Lake City Council on Monday.
Couns. Merrill Seidel commented on the letter, saying he found it funny that neither council member at the meeting was contacted for their side of the story.
"I respect the Ombudsman's report," he said. "I found it awfully funny that two members, myself and Mayor Wannon were never contacted by the Ombudsman to get our side of the story. I (wasn't) just a little shocked at that but okay."
Wannan agreed, adding a reminder that council was reprimanded for not providing all information available to the office but this time around, two council members who were at the meeting under investigation were not interviewed.
"I do have some questions about the specifics but it is a lesson learned perhaps there was a mistake that we weren't specific enough," Wannan said.
Couns. Norman Mann, who chaired the meeting, said he was interviewed by the Ombudsman's office.
"I did speak to the ombudsman's office and the investigator on numerous occasions," he said. "I did try to re-emphasize our position but there were no substantive changes to the final report so, in the end, I just want to thank the ombudsman's office for their work."