Bradford is standing behind a push to improve the integrity and workplace safety of municipal councils.
Council voted to support the call of the Association of the Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) for the provincial government to introduce legislation that would strengthen municipal codes of conduct and give municipalities the tools to enforce them, during the regular meeting of council earlier this week.
AMO recommended that the legislation include the following:
- 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;
- Prohibit a member so removed from sitting for election in the term of removal and the subsequent term of office.
Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu opened discussion by supporting the motion.
“I think this municipality, this council showed leadership last year when this was brought up and we endorsed it. Too bad that didn't go through at the provincial level, but I’m happy to second this,” he said.
Ward 3 Coun. Ben Verkaik echoed that sentiment.
“I think elected officials should be actually at a higher standard and it’s unbelievable that we don’t have processes in place to make sure that they are kept at a higher standard,” he said.
Those comments came in relation to the failed Ontario Bill 5, which council supported and which sought to amend the Municipal Act 2001, the City of Toronto Act 2006 and the codes of conduct for municipal councillors and members of local boards by requiring them to comply with workplace violence and harassment policies.
The amendments also would have allowed municipalities to direct the integrity commissioner to apply to the court to remove a member of council or a board from their seat, if the commissioner’s inquiry found that member in contravention of the code of conduct or the workplace violence and harassment policies.
The bill was defeated when it lost on division during second reading in the legislative assembly on May 31 this year.
On Tuesday evening, Ward. 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano expressed his support for the motion and agreed councillors should be held to a higher standard, but asked if there would be any affect on the conduct of the public.
“Is council protected by these same things as well? Can people slander us or attack us or have negative impacts to our wellbeing as well? I’m just curious: are we elected officials as human targets?” he asked.
Mayor James Leduc asked Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott to weigh in on the issue, and Scott explained the new rules would offer some recourse for councillors facing accusations.
“I mean, the public to a certain extent can say anything they want about us — that’s the nature of being an elected official. What this would do would be to create a process where you could actually have the integrity commissioner, and ultimately if your colleagues voted for it, it to go to court where you would have a formal legal process to defend yourself, and that doesn’t exist right now,” he said.
Scott further explained that under the current municipal framework, complaints or accusations against councillors for their behaviour are dealt with at the municipal level where the integrity commissioner investigates and reports on matters, before fellow councillors vote on a course of action.
Currently, the strictest penalty available is for a councillor’s pay to be docked for three months.
The legislative changes proposed by AMO “would allow the councillor to have an actual legal forum to present their case and have a court and all those processes that that entails on your side so to speak, to be innocent until proven guilty, whereas right now, I think the crux of your question is you’re guilty until proven innocent in the court of public opinion,” Scott said.
Giordano felt many people who would otherwise be interested in entering politics, might be dissuaded due to the way some people treat their elected officials.
“Having this next layer not only protects people from elected officials, but it also gives elected officials an option to protect themselves as well, and I think that that is a great tool,” he said.
With files from Shawn Gibson and Nikki Cole
