ELORA – Centre Wellington council approved the long-awaited and long-debated procedural bylaw at its meeting on June 28.
But one councillor called it the end of democracy.
“This is the day democracy died in my opinion,” said councillor Bob Foster as he complained about “favouritism” and “stifled debate” around the horseshoe.
The draft bylaw was first introduced to council last October, when councillors decided to form an ad hoc committee to tuck in deeper.
The ad hoc committee, consisting of councillor Kirk McElwain as chair, councillor Neil Dunsmore and Mayor Kelly Linton, along with senior staff, decided it needed the advice of subject experts to guide it through the bylaw.
Every municipality is required to have a procedural bylaw, which helps guide council and committee meetings.
There was a public meeting and comments were received and considered by the committee, but McElwain said he was disappointed that public comments, in his opinion, were not thoroughly discussed by the ad hoc committee.
The bylaw before council “is not everything it should be … but I expect it’s everything it’s going to be,” he said.
Councillor Stephen Kitras put forward a motion to amend the procedural bylaw to have agendas released on the Wednesday before a meeting instead of on Thursdays.
The amendment was passed as part of the overall bylaw, which was approved with Linton, Dunsmore, and councillors Ian MacRae and Steven VanLeeuwen in favour and Foster, McElwain and Kitras opposed.
