Council Meeting, but you can’t speak

What is today’s discussion about?

– Council Meeting Thursday, but you can’t speak up unless you apply to make a delegation.

That’s right, earlier this year, Council removed the Question Period or Public Comment period from their Council Agendas.

Now if you criticize them for this move, they will say that you can still speak up but you need to apply to make a delegation to Council.

Making a delegation was never the way of commenting on Council business. It was a way to introduce your issue to Council. (Similar to the backyard Chicken policy being presented this week).

But, what it does do is it forces you to tell Council what you plan to say ahead of time. This allows them to allow or deny your delegation. It also allows them to prepare to attack you. This happened when my wife wanted to comment on the Sign Bylaw amendment. When she finished giving her comments, Council took turns berating her, only after the Mayor allowed a senior staff member to call her comments “assenine” and the CAO to accuse her business of having 34 Signs that were non-compliant. The whole sign issue is for another discussions. What is important to grasp here today, is how they seemed to target her BECAUSE of her delegation.

It used to be that if you as a taxpayer felt strongly about an issue being discussed, you could add your two cents. It was the right thing to do. THIS COUNCIL DOES NOT CARE.

Please, please, please… read through the agenda for Thursdays meeting. (There are 427 Pages and issues affecting EVERY resident in some way) Think carefully if any of the issues might affect you. Then when you realize you cannot simply show up and ask a question, lock that away in your memory bank for October 26, 2026. That is when you will be able to vote for Council members that truly believe in transparency and accountability.