City council tackled the proposed changes to the city’s procedural bylaw, and the potential changes to public presentations drew tons of discussion. Many people offered heated defences of the current bylaw last night.
One of the presenters was Betty Dean, a former superintendent at the North Bay Jail. Dean says she read the media reports in September about the potential changes and immediately wondered why council considering this. Dean mentioned news that has painted the city in a bad light recently, referencing the Canadian Federation of Independent Business report, high property taxes, and an increase in water and sewage rates. Dean suggested that council has far more pressing matters to deal with.
There was a heated moment during the public presentations. A man named Lionel Rivet, claiming to be a lawyer, was nearly escorted out of council chambers for going after the mayor and staff for these potential changes, and other things like high tax rates.
Deputy Mayor Sheldon Forgette says the changes aren’t being made to silence anyone, just to make council more efficient. Changes would see a total of three 10 minute scheduled presentions per meeting, and Forgette also added in unlimited five minute presentations after discussion. People would just have to register with the clerk so she could offer assistance. If they still wanted to present to council at that point, they could.
Forgette says some people didn’t get the full explanation until last night. He says the media has controlled the message over the last little while. He added sometimes people only read headlines and nothing else, when really there’s more to it than that. Forgette says he’d like to bring the completed resolution before council for a vote in mid-November or early December.
