Public exclusion from council meetings is not uncommon in Prince Rupert where there are many sensitive land issues — however one councillor is making efforts to make the process more transparent.
“I think that given the amount of closed meetings that we’ve had, people rightfully have questions for us and more often than not we can’t actually legally give answers,” councillor Blair Mirau said at the May 23 council meeting.
From January until the end of May there have been 10 notices of closed council meetings, and in the same time frame last year there were nine closed meetings.
Mirau wants to improve the city’s communication policy around in-camera meetings — meaning the council discussions are kept secret from the public. Typically, these private meetings are held for subjects regarding land, labour and legal issues.
“We don’t necessarily want to be in a position where we’re always having closed meetings but we do have some legal challenges with Watson Island in particular, which requires confidential meetings so it’s just part of the role that we have at the City of Prince Rupert that is unique to us,” Mayor Lee Brain said in response to Mirau’s motion.
Improving openness and transparency is often an election promise for new governments, and usually the commitment falls by the wayside as it has in the federal government’s case.
When Justin Trudeau became prime minister he entrenched his government’s commitment in both the speech from the throne and in the federal budget to establish better openness and transparency by improving online services and access to information requests. However, in March 2017, the Canadian Press reported that the federal government has since delayed reforms to improve the access to information system.
But in Prince Rupert, rather than lose sight of transparency in the municipal government’s third year, there are now efforts to improve openness and public perception.
“I think we all know that sometimes perception can become reality and that’s why I want to be proactive on this,” Mirau said.
“I want to ensure the public has faith that we’re conducting closed meetings only as necessary but also when it comes to reporting, this is the bigger piece, that we do more than what the legislative minimum is so people know we’re being proactive in our disclosure.”
The motion was passed at council to develop a policy that keeps the ombudsperson’s best practices for closed meetings in mind.
Some of the points Mirau recommended includes establishing a process to have staff review and release minutes of the closed meeting and related information once it is no long confidential, providing as much detail as possible for why the meeting is closed, and finally to release as much information as possible.
Now, the public will have to wait and see if these improvements will take shape before the next municipal election.