The city’s Deputy Clerk is bringing out the stop watch for council meetings.
Jon Hindley is documenting the time spent in open council meetings versus the time members spent behind closed doors during in-camera sessions.
He presented his findings in a report to council for the Feb. 2 meeting.
Hindley noted, “City council has identified its commitment to promote transparency, accountability and accessibility in the Strategic Plan – Action Plan by reporting on the number of Closed Sessions held and the length of time spent in Closed Session.”
Council meetings may only be closed to the public under Section 239 of the Municipal Act for specific reasons.
Some of these include the security of the property of the municipality or local board, personal matters about an identifiable individual, and labour relations or employee negotiations.
According to Hindley’s report, in 2025, council met in Open Session during 38 meetings for a total of 38 hours, 22 minutes and in Closed Session during 25 meetings for a total of 19 hours, 11 minutes of meeting time.
This compares to 39 hours, 36 minutes in Open Session and 27 hours, 23 minutes in Closed Session in 2024.
The longest meeting was 1 hour and 39 minutes on Feb. 10, with the shortest being 14 minutes on Nov. 10.
The longest Closed Session took place on July 14 and lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes.
Written by Ian McCallum
