CENTRAL MANITOULIN—The appointment of new bylaw offence screening and hearing officers was set to be a pro-forma decision by Central Manitoulin council at its Thursday, October 28 meeting, but Councillor Derek Stephens found himself the lone voice in opposition.
Moved by Councillor Brian Mitchell and seconded by Councillor Dale Scott, “That bylaw 2024-32, being a bylaw to appoint a screening officer for the Municipality of Central Manitoulin be given its three readings and be duly passed,” was one of two motions being put forward as a recommendation from the October 22 Office and Administration Committee meeting—the other regarding the appointment of a hearing officer.
Councillor Stephens characterized the move as putting in place a potential “kangaroo court” when it came to bylaw enforcement, given that the screening officer appointment would be a municipal staff member—providing the perception that the deck was loaded in favour of the municipality and its bylaw officers.
“Having a staff person be the screening officer for this particular position, after having to deal with the bylaw officer issuing the ticket, is wrong,” he said. “In our court system, it’s totally different and the system that we have now is totally different. You go to the Crown attorney, you go in front of a judge, this here is a way that we are setting up ourselves—creating, as I want to call it, a kangaroo court, where we’re making the judge and we’re making this greeting officer, and there are no lawyers—there’s no nothing. You have to come in and talk to staff. I don’t feel that it should be somebody that’s representing the municipality to be doing that position and should be totally impartial. I totally disagree with the new bylaw and I totally disagree with staff being in these positions. I want to call for a recorded vote on this—people in the public are starting to catch on and we have had two emails now stating the same thing from the public.”
Councillor John Bisaillon voiced his disagreement with Councillor Stephens, pointing out that there are opportunities in the screening process for the respondent to get an adjustment to the fine. “Also, there’s some flexibility by using the screening officer too,” he said. “So, if they feel that the fine is too high, and you can get an agreement between the person coming and it can be adjusted accordingly or dismissed. Then he goes to a hearing officer. This hearing officer doesn’t live on the Island and is independent of this municipality. Having the hearing officer away from the Island, he has no problem to act, or connection with the Island. So, he’s professional. To say that this whole thing is in-house is wrong. The fact is that the hearing officer is an independent individual with a significant background.”
Councillor Stephens rebutted that the proposed hearing officer is not a lawyer.
Mayor Richard Stephens posited that “I think we do have a fair, good breakout of responsibility between our bylaw officer, who is responsible for legal charges.”
In the ensuing recorded vote, Councillors Bisaillon, Linda Farquhar, Brian Mitchell, Dale Scott and Mayor Stephens voted in favour of the motion. Councillor Stephens voted against, and Councillor Rose Diebolt was absent. The same count was recorded in the appointment of the hearing officer.
