Council should encourage debate, not kill it
Among the first things the next council should do is revisit the procedural bylaw this council has saddled them with.
It simply isn’t working.
It promotes “efficiency” over effectiveness. It cuts off public input. It discourages council debate. Sure, the mayor and councillors might get home in time to see the end of the Jays’ game, but at what cost to the job they were elected to do?
Don’t blame them all for this. Some are as unhappy with it as many members of the public are. Coun. Keith Riel moved to leave any consideration of a new procedural bylaw to the next council given the lateness of this term. But his motion, perhaps predictably, didn’t pass.
I watched last Monday’s council meeting. I watch them all. Frankly, I found last week’s exhausting. Not because of the hour (although it did go on) but because of how it was........
