Councillors are leaving some important tools in the toolbox

Question period, notice of motion rarely used

It comes as a surprise to most outsiders to Peterborough city hall that you can’t just show up at a meeting of city council and talk to the councillors about anything you want. If you are unhappy with your snow removal, the traffic near the local school or the proposed new development down the street, you can only talk about it if and when the councillors are talking about it. Of course, you can write or call an individual councillor any time, but if you want to speak to city council when it is actually debating and voting on something, and when the media is present, it’s their schedule that matters, not yours.

Many newcomers to city hall find that to be an odd arrangement that highlights an imbalance in the relationship between the governors and the governed. Fortunately, the provincial framers of the legislation that regulates the way city councils work – the Ontario Municipal Act – have made allowances for the imbalance.

One of these is called question period – a practice normally associated with provincial, territorial and federal legislatures.

At the municipal level, a question period is permitted as a routine item on the agenda of a city council meeting. It sets aside time for citizens to ask questions of the mayor or the councillors – some written and some verbal – on any subject of interest to them. It is one of the rare occasions when councillors have no staff reports in front of them to guide their answers.

Local councils in many Canadian cities have question periods for their citizens, including neighbouring Selwyn Township. Peterborough does not. Given the current council’s timid culture, such an innovation seems an unlikely event.

The prohibition of citizens speaking on any matter that interests them at a city council meeting applies similarly to city councillors.

Many new councillors are taken aback when they learn that, with few exceptions, they can speak only to the matters presented to them by city staff. This imbalance between the branches of government is a telling indication of where the power lies at city hall. In Peterborough, this imparity is acute and generally uncontested by councillors who place a higher value on receiving direction from city staff than they do promoting their own independent thought.

There are two exceptions to this rule that permit councillors to show some initiative. The first is the “other business” item at the end of each council agenda, which permits councillors to introduce a motion on an urgent matter that cannot wait until the next committee meeting. In Peterborough, it is extremely rare that a councillor has an urgent matter to deal with. In recent times, this item on the agenda has been used primarily for nonurgent community announcements.

The second opportunity for councillor initiative is an item on the council agenda called “notice of motion.” Here, councillors can give advance notice of a motion they intend to move on their own about a matter of importance to them. Because it originates with the councillor, it represents an effort to show leadership in the form of a direction to city staff, a policy proposal or the simple taking of a stand on something. Is it widely used in the city of Peterborough? Goodness, no. The city clerk advises that, since 2014, only two notices of motion have been introduced, those by councillors Dean Pappas and Keith Riel.

For their own reasons, Peterborough city councillors are not using valuable tools available to them – the question period and notice of motion – that could better serve and empower both their constituents and themselves.