CENTRAL MANITOULIN—Concerns raised about the demeanor of individuals making representations to council or its committees led to a series of motions at the April 13 meeting of Central Manitoulin council focussed on the municipal Code of Conduct.
“After what happened on Thursday night, this is long overdue,” said Councillor Brian Mitchell in speaking to the motion, seconded by Councillor John Bisaillon.
Councillor Bisaillon suggested that he could have done a better job of maintaining decorum at the meeting and apologized to council, but Mayor Richard Stephens said that he did not think the meeting had been overly rambunctious. “I thought you handled it well,” he said in response to Councillor Bisaillon. “Everybody had an opportunity to voice their opinion.”
That being said, the mayor indicated “that there is an expectation of respect and decorum in the conduct of our meetings.”
For his part, Councillor Derek Stephens pointed out that the Code of Conduct and integrity commissioner only applies to members of council and would not have impacted the conduct of the meeting in question.
The motion in question was, “Whereas, all Ontarians deserve and expect a safe and respectful workplace; whereas, municipal governments, as the democratic institutions most directly engaged with Ontarians need respectful discourse; whereas, several incidents in recent years of disrespectful behaviour and workplace harassment have occurred amongst members of municipal councils; whereas, these incidents seriously and negatively affect the people involved and lower public perceptions of local governments; whereas, municipal Codes of Conduct are helpful tools to set expectations of council member behaviour; whereas, municipal governments do not have the necessary tools to adequately enforce compliance with municipal Codes of Conduct; now, therefore be it resolved that: the Municipality of Central Manitoulin supports the call of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario for the Government of Ontario to introduce legislation to strengthen municipal Codes of Conduct and compliance with them in consultation with municipal governments; also be it resolved that the legislation encompass the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s recommendations for: updating municipal Codes of Conduct to account for workplace safety and harassment, creating a flexible administrative penalty regime, adapted to the local economic and financial circumstances of municipalities across Ontario, increasing training of municipal integrity commissioners to enhance consistency of investigations and recommendations across the province, allowing municipalities to apply to a member of the judiciary to remove a sitting member if recommended through the report of a municipal integrity commissioner.”
The motion carried unopposed.
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