Members of the public are not allowed to attend planning workshops designed to overcome differences of opinion among Powell River Regional District politicians.
The regional district organized a planning committee strategic discussion workshop on December 8, 2011. Rob Roycroft, of Roycroft Consulting Services from Vancouver Island, facilitated the workshop, which all members of the planning committee and three staff attended. The workshop cost $3,392. The total includes the facilitator’s fee, directors’ meeting claims and refreshments.
Mac Fraser, the regional district’s chief administrative officer, prepared a report about the workshop, which he presented at the January 17 planning committee meeting. The report noted that discussions around specific work priorities resulted in a consensus of the following:
• Directors and staff will collectively compile a list of areas of particular interest in Areas B and C.
• Staff will bring forward proposed work plans for the completion of OCPs (official community plans) in Areas B and C in 2012.
• Staff will bring forward proposed work plans for the commencement of an OCP in Area A in 2012.
• Staff will provide confidential legal advice on a specific issue to the members.
Based on the discussion about work priorities, Fraser’s report included 2012 planning staff work plans, for the directors’ consideration.
Fraser also recommended that the committee direct staff to convene another planning committee strategic discussion workshop in February and that the planning committee endorse the 2012 planning staff work plans as submitted. The committee passed the recommendation as a motion. A second workshop was held in February.
When asked if the workshops were open to the public, Fraser said no. “They’re workshops for discussion, they’re not decision making,” he said. “It’s a learning experience and a sharing experience.”
The money for the workshop came from the planning projects budget, which Fraser said was underspent for 2011.
Colin Palmer, board chair and Electoral Area C director, said directors needed to be able to discuss planning issues privately in order to resolve an impasse that exists among directors regarding planning. Palmer said no decisions were made at the workshop and directors would be restricted in what they said if the workshop was open to the public. “It’s an opportunity for us to get together and discuss how we could solve the impasse,” he said. “I don’t know how I can resolve issues with fellow directors knowing if it’s a public meeting they’re not going to say quite openly what they think about something. But, all we’re doing is thinking about it.”
It’s an ongoing process, Palmer said. “We have to figure out a way to try to resolve this,” he said. “I don’t think the public has been left out.”
According to an article published in The Law Letter, a newsletter published by Lidstone and Company that is available on its website, the ground rule is that if a council or board is meeting and discusses a matter such that it is moved along the spectrum of decision-making toward a decision, then the meeting is a council or board meeting and requires notice, minutes and public openness.
“If a retreat, workshop, shirtsleeve session or a retreat by any other name walks, talks and looks like a meeting, it is a meeting,” an article in the December 2010 issue states. “Generally, the courts are of the view that local government deliberations and decision making should be as transparent and publicly accessible as possible, subject to requirements that are provided for as an exception under section 90 [of the Community Charter].”
