SUNDRE – People who wish to remotely participate in Town of Sundre public hearings will now have that opportunity.
The municipality's council recently approved an update adding a new section into its procedural bylaw that will enable people to tune into public hearings by telephone per revised provisions outlined in the amended Municipal Government Act relating to electronic meetings.
Linda Nelson, the town's chief administrative officer, told council the changes pertain specifically to public hearings.
“It’s not for all meetings,” said Nelson during the regular April 28 meeting.
The new section had a full legal review and was written as recommended by legal counsel, she said, adding there were a few minor formatting errors and typos that needed to be corrected once the bylaw was adopted.
According to background information outlined in council’s agenda package, the updated MGA now states that “every council must by bylaw provide for public hearings under Part 17 to be conducted by electronic means” and the changes had to be made no later than April 30.
The bylaw had to include a definition of the type of electronic means by which meetings are held along with a requirement that the identity of each councillor attending the meeting be confirmed by a method authorized by bylaw as well as determining a method to make information in respect to the meeting publicly available before and during the meeting.
Per the municipality’s new section added to the procedural bylaw, a person may attend a public hearing by telephone by contacting the town’s legislative services department in advance to be provided with an access number.
The bylaw does not include an option for tuning in by livestream video even though council chambers is fully equipped with a suite of cameras that have not been used since being installed several years ago.
Anyone who wants to address council over the telephone during a public hearing must contact the municipality in advance to be added to a list of speakers and provided with the access number.
Additionally, instructions on how to attend and participate in a public hearing either in person or by telephone are to be provided in the notice of the public hearing.
Once a public hearing is called to order, the presiding officer must also conduct a roll call to confirm the identity of any member participating by telephone.
And when the presiding officer calls upon a person from the list of speakers who is participating by telephone to make their submissions to council, that individual must identify themselves by name and by group or organization they are representing – if applicable – before making their submissions.
Prior to council passing all three readings to adopt the new bylaw, Coun. Jaime Marr asked if including a section on safety might be prudent.
“I am thinking specific to an incident that may occur from the public in a closed or open meeting,” said Marr.
“That is something we could be looked at in the future,” said Nelson.
“But for this bylaw, it’s specifically to electronic participation for public hearings.”
