What is a council meeting? What is their purpose?
Published as a Letter to the Editor in the Westmount Independent, 2023-12-12.
City Council has decided to reduce public meetings to one per month (November 28, p. 1), but will continue to hold “general committee” meetings, closed to the public, mid-monthly.
How does this respect the Quebec Cities and Towns Act (C-19) which requires (para. 322) “The sittings of the council shall be public.” ou en français, « Les séances du conseil sont publiques. » ?
Or does Council believe that by calling it “general committee” it therefore magically is no longer a council meeting? If council’s goal is to circumvent the provincial law, it would make more sense to have an English-only meeting where everyone stands, so that it will not be a “sitting”!
Transparency in government is essential to democracy. While holding in-person meetings which are poorly attended by the public may not be very efficient, the pandemic has shown that online broadcasting of meetings, whether in-person or virtual, is highly practical.