Mayors' Forum, February 25

On February 25, our regular Monday meeting was changed to a forum with the three local mayors: Mayor Johannson from the City of Selkirk, Mayor Joy Sul from St.Andrews Municipality and Mayor Debbie Fiebelkorn from St. Clements Municipality.

Mayor Sul presented an overview of the history leading up to the amendments. She gave examples of harassment and abusive conduct experienced by both male and female councillors, mayors and office staff. She outlined the amendments that have been made to Bill 2 in order to address these issues and to provide protection for elected officials under the Municipal Act.

Explanatory Note:

This Bill amends The Municipal Act to require that a code of conduct for members of council be adopted by by-law.

The code must set out procedures for receiving and dealing with reports of contraventions, along with the sanctions and remedial measures that apply if there is a contravention.

The minister may make regulations establishing minimum standards for codes of conduct and governing possible appeals when sanctions are imposed.

Members must undergo training specified by the minister and any additional training arranged by the municipality.

Mayor Johannson and Mayor Fiebelkorn recognized the importance of the act and though councils may not be currently experiencing uncivil behaviour they may in the future.

Mayor Johannson stated the City of Selkirk Council is made up of an equal number of male and female councillors and that ratio may have been a deterrent. He also talked about Selkirk being the only city to declare an Equal Pay Day for males and female employees and how it has received and award for this initiative.

Mayor Fiebelkorn told us of how she had experienced some bullying over her years in municipal politics and how she had quietly dealt with it.

The forum ended with a few questions for the mayors. The last question was a positive way to end when it was asked how we, as citizens, can support our councillors and help to eliminate this type of behaviour.

Fifty people purchased tickets and they included Rotarians and their partners,members of many other community groups, councillors from Selkirk and St.Andrews, the Mayor of West St. Paul, MLA Dr. Lagimodiere and Barbara Bowes the writer of the “Work Matters” section of the Free Press.