Jess McDiarmid
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 5, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - City council unanimously passed a motion to review in-camera proceedings and direct city staff to propose revisions at its Nov. 26 council meeting.

" The matter of going in-camera to discuss items and the need for the public to have information on which to monitor and assess the performance of their elected officials is always a matter of finding some balance," said city councillor David Wind, who brought the motion forward.

" What we want to do with this motion is to make sure that we're getting the balance that is as correct as possible," said Wind.

The motion calls for a review of the rules and current practices of going in-camera to find out if they are at odds with council's goal of openness and transparency.

It also directs city staff, who will conduct the review, to propose revisions to make committee and council business more open and transparent while protecting confidentiality when necessary.

The review, said Wind, is to be " an examination of our practices and procedures to make sure that we are respectful of the public's right to know and that we aren't slipping inadvertently into a situation whereby we might be going in-camera for reasons that may not stand up to scrutiny."

Wind said city council has made considerable progress in its transparency but that didn't mean it couldn't get better.

Coun. Kevin Kennedy asked for an estimate of the cost of a review, which city staff put at a few days of work by the city clerk reviewed by senior management.

He said he supported the motion in light of openness and transparency being a goal of council and something councillors worked on but added he didn't think it was a response to any abuse of in-camera proceedings.

Councillors Dave McCann and Bob Brooks said things have improved and there is room to improve them further.

McCann said too much being " kept under wraps" in the past undercut council and citizens' ability to bring pressure on certain issues, which gave him the impetus to support the motion " with enthusiasm."

" We are a junior level of government so we can't solve all the problems ourselves," said McCann. " If we don't in fact allow our citizens to engage in the political pressure game, basically we end up in isolation and the problems don't get solved and there's a lot of frustration on all sides."

He suggested more careful crafting of the areas that require confidentiality.

Councillors Shelagh Montgomery and Lydia Bardak both said they hadn't noticed problems but supported the motion in keeping with council goals.

The review will take place as soon as staff has time to complete it, which will likely be within a few weeks, said Mayor Gordon Van Tighem.