Thompson city council approved first reading of a new organizational and procedural bylaw by a vote of 5-3 at a special meeting Jan. 27.
If passed, the new bylaw will replace two existing bylaws – one organizational and one procedural – in place since 2020.
The main change in the new bylaw is that standing committees, although they can still be established if council wishes, will be replaced by committee of the whole meetings twice a month, on the first and third Mondays.
The committee meetings will be at 7 p.m., the same time as council meetings, which are scheduled for the second and fourth Mondays of every month, and will be recorded and broadcast via the internet as regular council meetings are now, according to councillors.
“Moving forward as a committee of the whole is a great idea to me,” said deputy mayor Brian Lundmark, later noting that it could remove some redundancy and delay caused by one issue being reviewed at multiple standing committees under the current structure.
Coun, Andre Proulx said he thought having committee of the whole meetings in the evening once every two weeks might make running for council more attractive to people who could not make themselves available to attend standing committee meetings, which were monthly or biweekly and generally during business hours on weekdays.
“This seems to be something that works in other municipalities throughout the province,” said Coun. Braden McMurdo.
Pointing out that this would mark the third time this term that council has tweaked its committee structure, Coun. Earl Colbourne said he would not support the bylaw. Coun Duncan Wong also voted against first reading, as did Coun. Les Ellsworth, who doesn’t like the lack of public participation in the proposed bylaw. Coun Jeff Fountain was not present at the meeting and all the other members of council voted in favour.
“I have a very difficult time when you don’t involve the community as you should,” Ellsworth said.
Broadcasting and making recordings of the committee meetings available online will help them reach more people than standing committee meetings, which had participation from citizen representatives who were committee members, but usually few if any spectators, said Coun. Kathy Valentino.
“If we get more viewers then it is being effective,” she said.
Less public interaction is “something we’re going to have to keep an eye on,” said Mayor Colleen Smook, who supports the committee of the whole structure. She also said there is nothing preventing citizens from reaching out to councillors about issues they have, just as nothing stops councillors from running ideas by former citizen committee members or other residents of Thompson.
The new bylaw would also do away with the community comments and feedback portion of council meetings, limiting public participation to delegations and presentations, which appear by the invitation of council.
At one time, council meetings had two opportunities for impromptu public participation: a general inquiries section near the beginning of the meeting, later renamed community comments and feedback, and a question period following the mayor’s report at the tail end of meetings. The general inquiries section was added to give people an opportunity to ask council questions without having to sit through a whole meeting. After it was introduced, the question period was removed from council meeting agendas.
