Local representatives in the Pontiac at the municipal and the MRC level frequently hold meetings “in-camera”, which means the public and the media are excluded from the meeting.

At the last public meeting of the Pontiac Council of Mayors on March 16, votes passed very quickly, without discussion, or even much expression of dissent. Warden Jane Toller alluded a few times that these matters had already been . . .

discussed at the private plenary meeting which had been held a week before the public meeting.

In effect, this plenary meeting means that members of the Council of Mayors, who represent the 18 mayors of the Pontiac, hold a private meeting one week before the public meeting every month.

THE EQUITY has investigated the practice of holding private “in-camera” meetings of council, to gain an understanding of its purpose and legal basis.

The Municipal Code of Quebec, which governs all aspects of how municipal governments are to operate, is silent on the question of holding council meetings that are closed to the public. In fact, Article 149 of the code states that, “The sittings [of councils] are public, and the proceedings must be audible and intelligible.” Article 150 goes on to state that the public must be given a period of time to ask the council members questions.

The same is true of the Guide d’accueil et de référence pour les élues et les élus municipaux, a set of guidelines from the Quebec Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing issued to municipal politicians. This guide states that meetings of the council, regardless of whether they are regular or extraordinary, be opened to the public in order so that the public can better understand the decisions and direction of the council.

The ministry guidelines do, however, allow municipal councils to hold meetings of preparatory work to plan the agenda for regular (public) sessions of the council, familiarize themselves with files to be discussed at public meetings and have more advanced debates on issues.

When asked to explain their position on private plenary meetings Bernard Roy, director general of the MRC Pontiac, supplied this written statement to THE EQUITY:

“As you know, the sittings of the Council of Mayors of the MRC Pontiac are held on the third Wednesday of each month, except for the November sitting which is held on the fourth Wednesday. In accordance with the law, including the relevant sections of the Municipal Code of Quebec, these sittings are held according to the rules in effect and all decisions are made in public in the form of a resolution or by-law. The plenary committee is a working committee composed of all elected officials who are members of the Council of Mayors. This committee has no decision-making authority. As is the case with other MRC committees, the plenary committee formulates recommendations that must ultimately be addressed and ratified by the Council of Mayors to take effect. These meetings are also an opportunity to follow up with information on various ongoing files.”

A number of current and former Pontiac municipal politicians, speaking off the record, have commented that holding council meetings in-camera allows participants to discuss issues in a way that allows them to speak frankly and work through issues more efficiently.

In 2011, the Charest government launched the Charbonneau Commission to look into corruption in the management of public contracts in the provincial government.

Included in its investigation was the question of the lack of transparency on municipal councils.

Recommendation 51 of the commission’s report observed that rules regarding exclusion of the public and media from municipal deliberations were ambiguous and that the Quebec government should adopt a law along the lines of Ontario’s 2001 Municipal Act which restricts what municipal council may discuss in private.

Under section 239 of the Ontario Municipal Act municipal councils may be closed to the public when discussion involves subjects such as labour negotiations, litigation and privileged information, privacy of municipal employees, and the protection of proprietary information of firms being examined by councils.

The Ontario law also allows citizens to apply to the government to ensure that municipal councils abide by these rules.

This recommendation of the Charbonneau Commission has not been implemented since the final report was published in 2015.

Pontiac MNA André Fortin believes that more needs to be done to improve the transparency of local government.

“[The Liberal Party of Quebec] wholeheartedly believes that recommendations of the Charbonneau Commission should be implemented,” said Fortin, who expressed his explicit support for implementation of recommendation 51.

“Politicians are elected by citizens and citizens pay for all of the activities of government,” said Fortin. “And so, for the government and its representatives to be transparent, open, honest, forthcoming about government action is certainly owed to us.”

The next plenary meeting will happen on April 13, a week before the public meeting of Council of Mayors at the MRC.

Register or subscribe to read this content

Thanks for stopping by! This article is available to readers who have created a free account or who subscribe to The Equity.

When you register for free with your email, you get access to a limited number of stories at no cost. Subscribers enjoy unlimited access to everything we publish—and directly support quality local journalism here in the Pontiac.

Register or Subscribe Today!