"Council's 'public' question period deemed unsuitable for TV" -by Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun May 20, 2010

Council's 'public' question period deemed unsuitable for TV


BY DAPHNE BRAMHAM, VANCOUVER SUN MAY 20, 2010


The nagging, gnawing thing about democracy is that, once elected, politicians are supposed to continue paying attention to the voters who put them in office.

It's a nuisance really. Citizens sometimes ask stupid or nasty questions. Sometimes, they ask pointed questions. Occasionally, they ask questions that the elected folks would prefer were left unasked.

And every once in a while, the peasants revolt. Just ask provincial Liberals what it's like to be the focus of the HST backlash.

But for the most part senior levels of government don't have to face the voters every week like municipal mayors and councillors do.

Summerland's municipal council has been particularly plagued by difficult public questions at its regular meetings, not the least of which was a barrage by Pentiction Herald managing editor James Miller in November 2009 about 2008 election financing disclosures.

His questions about an unregistered campaign organization, its support for all of the successful council candidates and more generally about campaign donations were broadcast as part of the regular council coverage by Shaw Cable and they ended up on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVP349ZoNXY).

That led to more questions about the legitimacy of the council itself. And, eventually, some citizens lodged complaints with local RCMP.

No investigation was ever done, since in the absence of a time limit for complaints about election improprieties in the Local Government Act the RCMP had to rely on the Offence Act, which does not allow proceedings to commence more than six months after an action takes place.

(Changing that to allow more time for investigation is one of the recommendations the RCMP subsequently made to the provincial task force, which is scheduled to report back later this month about improving transparency and accountability in municipal elections.)

With a shadow continuing to hang over it, Summerland council is now considering a controversial development affecting both municipal and agricultural land that would require an amendment to the Official Community Plan, which was passed in April 2008.

Not surprisingly, citizens have lots of questions, but Summerland council has made sure that its public questioning is a little less public.

Citizens can still step up to the podium and ask what they want. Citizens can still do that, but that part of the meeting is no longer broadcast by Shaw Cable . . . at the council's request.

It was done without any public debate or disclosure and citizens only found out about it this week after a local print reporter noticed that at a recent meeting the cameras were turned off when question period began.

Convenient isn't it? Legal, too. There is no legislated requirement for municipalities to have any part of council meetings televised.

And, as Shaw told the Penticton Herald earlier this week, it is not under any obligation by the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) to cover local councils at all.

It's surprising that Shaw was willing to accede to Summerland council's wishes.

Maybe covering the entire meeting isn't part of its mandate. But pragmatically?

Having spent far too many soporific hours covering city council meetings in several different municipalities, it's hard to imagine the broadcaster is okay with filling hours of air time with boring, moved-seconded-all-in-favour stuff and not the public question period that's almost always the liveliest, if not the most interesting part, of the meeting.

It's hard to imagine what's next.

Banning the public altogether? Or taking a page from some other municipalities' minutes and threatening citizens with legal action? Yet forced back into the public realm come election time, don't be surprised to hear the politicians wondering why there's so much voter distrust and cynicism.

dbramham@vancouversun.com

To make municipal election financing more transparent for Metro Vancouver residents, The Vancouver Sun has a searchable database of donors in the 2008 election at vancouversun.com/donors

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