City of Guelph support the Association of Municipalities of Ontario's call for the Government of Ontario to introduce legislation to strengthen municipal Codes of Conduct and…

1:39:15that's been brought to this agenda.

1:39:18It's the municipal code of conduct

1:39:20and support of bill five,

1:39:23stopping harassment and abuse by local leaders act.

1:39:28And I'm going to ask Councillor Werker

1:39:30if she'd like to put the motion on the floor

1:39:32and we'll get a seconder

1:39:33and then maybe she would like to speak to this.

1:39:35Thank you, Chair Downer.

1:39:37Councillor Richardson has agreed to second.

1:39:41So the motion that you have before you

1:39:44was actually brought to Council by the mayor.

1:39:47Mayor Guthrie and I met with MPP Stephen Blair of Orleans,

1:39:52which is where I grew up actually.

1:39:53We met with him a few weeks ago

1:39:55and he is the proponent of bill five,

1:39:59stopping harassment and abuse by local leaders act.

1:40:03What this legislation does is it amends the code of conduct

1:40:08for municipal councillors and members of it,

1:40:10amends the municipal act to allow a requirement

1:40:14for councillors and members to comply with workplace violence

1:40:17and harassment policies that is absent

1:40:20in the act at this time.

1:40:22The amendments proposed in bill five

1:40:24also permit municipalities and local boards

1:40:26to direct the integrity commissioner

1:40:28to apply to the court to vacate a member's seat

1:40:31if the commissioners inquiry determines

1:40:33that the member has contravened a code of conduct.

1:40:35So there is a mechanism in place

1:40:38that's not councillors making any determination.

1:40:41There's a new mechanism proposed

1:40:43to go to the integrity commissioner

1:40:45and then the court to propose a remedy

1:40:48and those things are absent.

1:40:50So it creates some responsibility for local leaders.

1:40:56So all of our staff would be required to comply

1:40:59with workplace harassment and violence policies.

1:41:03And while it's not an issue, 99.9% of the time

1:41:07with local leaders, there are cases

1:41:09where there's workplace violence and harassment

1:41:11from elected officials, but no mechanism exists

1:41:15to remove them other than say wait till the next election.

1:41:19So bill five proposes to do that.

1:41:24So it allows that mechanism to remove a mayor

1:41:28or city council from office

1:41:29for egregious workplace violence or harassment.

1:41:33It has a support from Ontario's big city mayors,

1:41:36from AMO from Roma and 57 municipalities.

1:41:40And maybe tonight we make wealth number 58

1:41:44because we do need tougher penalties

1:41:46if there are municipal leaders who abuse or harass

1:41:48or demean their staff and colleagues.

1:41:52There are similar measures proposed by AMO.

1:41:55And I'm just reading from a policy update from AMO

1:41:58where they indicate that their board believes

1:42:02that the current tools available to municipal councils

1:42:05to ensure ethical behavior and respectful discourse

1:42:08are inadequate and do not meet public expectations.

1:42:11And AMO has also presented at the request

1:42:14of the ministry of municipal affairs and housing

1:42:17and number of recommendations to improve

1:42:21the application of municipal codes of conduct

1:42:23for elected officials.

1:42:23So this motion is simply the city of Guelph

1:42:26and Guelph's council support for bill five in the context

1:42:32and the association municipality of Ontario's recommendations.

1:42:42Okay, so it's the two,

1:42:44it's the support of the association

1:42:46of the municipalities AMO

1:42:47and then it's also support for the support for bill five.

1:42:50That's correct.

1:42:51It encompasses the two.

1:42:52Okay, thank you.

1:42:53Are there any questions?

1:42:54Councillor Allt.

1:42:56Thank you very much.

1:42:57I have no issue with the principles

1:42:59that are being presented.

1:43:00But the question is actually first of all,

1:43:03two questions, awesome, quickly.

1:43:05First of all, this is a definition of egregious.

1:43:07And secondly, for staff,

1:43:08I was wondering if there are any comments that staff

1:43:11wishes to make on this proposal,

1:43:13but the egregious one,

1:43:15who defines egregious as the first question?

1:43:18The integrity question.

1:43:21Right, so. For the mover.

1:43:22Right, so through chair downer to Councillor Allt.

1:43:25The motion in front of council to date

1:43:28is not implementing the bill,

1:43:30is not helping to draft or define the terms within the bill.

1:43:33It's supporting the bill that actually

1:43:36still has to go to committee, the principles of it.

1:43:38It is supporting the principles

1:43:40of what AMO is putting forward.

1:43:41So who would define egregious, the integrity commissioner,

1:43:44and then the court,

1:43:46and then they could recommend a remedy

1:43:48because there are cases in Ontario, recent ones

1:43:50where there have been what we could define

1:43:53as egregious behavior.

1:43:55And thank you for that.

1:43:56Just a comment.

1:43:58One of my concerns as a council,

1:44:00and this just reinforced it is,

1:44:02I didn't have a chance to read the report

1:44:04because it came to us so late.

1:44:06And I would hope chair downer that we as a council

1:44:09can work to be sure that we get information out.

1:44:12Because I understand there's a 60 page report

1:44:14that comes with this as well,

1:44:16is what somebody else had told me.

1:44:18So consequently, I like to find out what we mean

1:44:21by things like egregious, for example.

1:44:24But the second question does come to staff,

1:44:27if staff does wish to comment on this.

1:44:33A few chair downer to council are all,

1:44:34the only comment I'd be comfortable in providing

1:44:36is that at this current point,

1:44:38there is a distinguished difference

1:44:40between the treatment of employees of a corporation,

1:44:43a municipal corporation, that differs from council.

1:44:47And the intentions behind this bill,

1:44:51they lessen that gap.

1:44:54That's the extent that I would probably provide comment for.

1:44:57Thanks, great comment.

1:44:59Thank you.

1:45:00Are there comments or questions?

1:45:07Councillor classon?

1:45:08Yeah, thank you for bringing this forward

1:45:10because I hadn't heard about it.

1:45:11And I was happy to learn a little bit more

1:45:13through the course of the last 24 hours.

1:45:16And I think it's just important

1:45:18because it's not something that we ever think about.

1:45:21And I think everybody in this room holds themselves

1:45:24to a high standard and we follow the code of conduct.

1:45:28But this isn't necessarily just for us.

1:45:31This is for, we don't know what's coming in the future.

1:45:34And I think it just closes that gap.

1:45:35And there's some stories out there,

1:45:37like a quick Google search and you'll find some stories.

1:45:41And so thank you for bringing this forward

1:45:43and I will be supporting.

1:45:47Okay, thank you.

1:45:47Any other comments, questions?

1:45:50Okay, I'm going to call the vote.

1:45:51Is there anyone opposed to this?

1:45:55Okay, I'm asleep fast.

1:45:57Thank you.

1:45:59We're gonna go on to the bylaws.