THUNDER BAY -- The city didn't even vote on its drafted code of conduct two years ago but a new Ontario law could mean city council has to dust it off and adopt it.
In a move the province says will make local governance "more open, flexible and accountable," it's proposing changes to municipal laws that would require every municipality to pass a code of conduct for elected officials.
“The changes we are proposing will help strengthen local governments and enhance their ability to serve the residents of their communities,” Minister of Municipal Affairs and Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Bill Mauro said in a release.
Thunder Bay administration wrote a code of conduct that would have appeared before council in December of 2014 but it was struck from the agenda when no councilor would move or second it.
City clerk John Hannam said council didn't reject the content of the proposed code so much as its financial implications.
"The issue was more around the fact that having a code of conduct means you then have to engage an integrity commissioner so there were concerns around the expenses that might arise from that. It wasn't about the content of the code itself," Hannam said.
"To some degree, a code of conduct is often a series of statements and principles that are pretty common, ones you'd think people would agree to anyway."
The code included stipulations elected members of council were not to misuse corporate resources, not misrepresent their authority, not engage in inappropriate behaviour toward staff and not to break any existing laws.
Hannam said he looks forward to seeing how other aspects of the law roll out, including hammering out a definition of what constitutes a law.
"That may sound like a dry thing but it has caused a lot of confusion around closed meeting investigations in particular and decisions about when council gets together as a group socially, does that mean it's a meeting?" Hannam asked.
"For some time now there has been a call to the minister to put together a definition."
