Remote attendance draws lengthy debate at Prince Albert council meeting

Laewetz disagreed with the limits and said that while in-person is ideal, even Parliament allows for remote attendance.

“If we do have a fixed annual limit, I feel like there should be some reasoning behind it,” he said. “I also disagree with the prohibition of remote participation at budget committee meetings. Budget committee is a committee. Executive committee is a committee,” he said.

While both are technically committees of the whole meetings, the length of time, the agenda and when both are conducted differ significantly.

Council holds an executive committee or committee of the whole approximately once per month with the agenda dedicated to reports from staff or city-funded organizations and allows time for more lengthy debates.

Budget meetings are set annually and run for multiple eight-hour days back-to-back. Council and multiple members of the staff go through the entire proposed budget, discuss and vote on which items to keep, defer or discard.

The budget governs city spending for an entire year and determines the rate property owners are taxed at.

Last year, Laewetz was allowed to attend part of one budget meeting remotely as he had an appointment out of town.

The most senior councillor, Blake Edwards, said he doesn’t remember remote attendance ever being allowed during budget discussions and he was denied himself during the pandemic. He said he recalls it being part of the orientation package prospective councillors are given during elections, but that was not confirmed.

“To go remote, that is a change to budget procedures. I did ask because I was at home quarantined over COVID and I asked and I was told, no, it’s not allowed,” he said.

One scenario raised by several councillors was half or all of council opting to attend the same meeting remotely and having the council chamber empty.

“To go over all of the items, I can’t even imagine if five of us were missing during budget,” Edwards said. “It’s such a convoluted process and so much discussion, it would be very difficult.”

He said there are 14 council meetings along with the budget meetings, and all are set a year in advance, giving councillors plenty of time to schedule around them.

Other members pointed out that remote attendance federally or even provincially is much different since ridings are spread out geographically while all councillors live within city limits.

Mayor Bill Powalinsky suggested the focus should remain on voter expectations and challenged each councillor to ask their constituents whether they thought attendance should be in person or remote.

“I can already predict the result with fair certainty,” he said.

The committee voted 5–3 in favour of recommending the restrictions. The changes still require approval at a regular council meeting.

Other changes that could potentially come into place include restrictions on changing from in-person to remote during a meeting, limitations put in place by the mayor and requirements regarding camera use.

In-camera meeting attendance would require the remote councillor to keep their camera on and the city clerk to be able to confirm that the member is in a private setting.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Remote attendance draws lengthy debate at Prince Albert council meeting

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