Contrasting lessons in open government from Collingwood and Oro-Medonte

By Kate Harries AWARE Simcoe – September 12 2010
Is this the year people have woken up to the importance of the political decisions made on our behalf by members of municipal councils?
There are races for almost every position in Simcoe County and record numbers of candidates in some areas.
We don’t know whether AWARE Simcoe can take any credit for the heightened interest but we note that one of our group’s key objectives – increased accountability and transparency – is showing up as a campaign theme for candidates of all political stripes.
Collingwood Councillor Ian Chadwick this week modelled the kind of behaviour we expect from those committed to open government.
He walked out of an in-camera meeting because he felt the discussion should have been in public.
Politicians all too often forget that the Municipal Act does not REQUIRE them to go behind closed doors when they are discussing, for instance, a legal matter. It ALLOWS them to do so.
The wording of Section 239.1 is – “All meetings SHALL be open to the public…” and it is modified by section 239.2 ..”a meeting… MAY… be closed if…”
The SHALL applies to the openness which is the default position. The MAY is a judgment call – and councillors should make up their own minds on each issue. The clerk may provide advice, but the councillors have to decide.
Many legal matters clearly raise questions of public interest which should be openly discussed so the public has a chance to contribute..
Case in point: the current controversy in Oro-Medonte over which aspects of environmental protectiion will be up to the Severn Sound Environmental Association and which are the responsibility of the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority.
This is a situation that involves:
-One municipal government.
-Two government agencies.
-Our money.
-Our environment.
Why any secrecy? Every aspect of this matter should be public and every document explaining the township’s actions involving the two agencies should be available for all to peruse.
Yet, mystifyingly, documents in the township’s appeal of the NVCA’s 2009 budget to the Mining and Lands Commission are said by Oro-Medonte Mayor Harry Hughes to be covered by confidentiality rules.
Worse, a Memorandum of Understanding – that the three parties are apparently rushing to approve before a September 28 deadline in the appeal process – was only made public ONE day before the September 8 council meeting that voted in favour of it, with Councillor Sandy Agnew alone in outspoken disagreement.
Agnew was right in calling on Hughes to lift the veil of confidentiality on the document in which the township explains the reasons for its appeal.
But Agnew could not even get a seconder for deferral and further consideration of what he believes is an unjustifiably complicated process laid out in the MOU.
Hughes got what he wanted at that meeting, and he gets what he wants in this election – no one stepped forward to oppose him, so he’s going to be the head of council for the next four years.
The only other mayor to have been acclaimed was Scott Warnock in Tay. 
Elsewhere in Simcoe County, the race for mayor is on. Eight people are running in Barrie, including two current councillors, a former MPP, a former mayor and the current mayor.
In Severn, Jane Dunlop was acclaimed (making politics a family affair with her Tory MPP husband) and Mark Taylor. Other acclamations: Mel Coutanche in Oro-Medonte, James Leduc and Peter Dykie in Bradford West Gwillimbury, and Shawn Davidson in Clearview.
Current Adjala-Tosorontio Deputy Mayor Doug Little is running again – this time for a council seat.
And Innisfil Mayor Brian Jackson is seeking election – in Barrie’s Ward 9, where his home is now located as a result of Barrie’s boundary having been extended to take in 2,293 hectares of Innisfil.