CHANTRY — Will one committee of the whole meeting be better for governance in Rideau Lakes Township?
Council has passed a bylaw, under strong mayor powers, to dissolve the Municipal Services Committee for General Governance and Public Works, which typically met twice a month, and replace it with a single monthly Committee of the Whole meeting.
Bylaw 2025-110 was approved Sept. 2 under strong mayor powers, following a staff recommendation that fewer meetings would ease workload and improve efficiency.
Clerk Mary Ellen Truelove told council in August the change would reduce duplication and cut down on lengthy agendas. Departmental updates will now come less frequently.
CAO Shellee Fournier said the business of the corporation could still be completed in less than three hours, based on recent combined summer meetings. During the Sept. 2 session, at the two-hour and 42-minute mark, she noted council had already finished the regular business of the corporation “and now, were into all the other political items.”
In recent months, meetings have stretched past four hours — plus another five hours in closed sessions — with agenda packages running as thick as 240 pages.
Mayor Arie Hoogenboom emphasized the idea came from staff. “To be clear, I’m not dictating this direction under strong mayor powers,” he said. “This was a recommendation, and a strong one, from staff. I’m responding to the staff concerns about their time, and our concerns about the time that meetings take.”
Council votes under strong mayor powers
However, the bylaw passed with only four votes under strong mayor rules. In a recorded vote, Hoogenboom, Marcia Maxwell, Dustin Bullock and Ron Pollard supported the change. Linda Carr, Sue Dunfield, Deborah Anne Hutchings, Jeff Banks and Paula Banks opposed it.
The debate revealed divisions around workload and transparency.
Dunfield said the change “strikes at the heart of our responsibility to the people we represent.” She added council was often buried in “pages and pages and reams and reams” of information. “We have no need for that. We just need a summary by the manager that this is what was said.”
Paula Banks raised a similar point at the Aug. 6 meeting. “Staff give way too many reports,” she said then. “They’re repetitious and the same information.”
Jeff Banks called the move to one meeting “the strong hand of the mayor.”
Bullock defended the change. “This is something that staff is looking for. It’s something that’s going to help their workload, it’s something that’s going to help make the business of council more efficient, and I can’t help but take that advice,” he said.
Hutchings questioned where that information came from. “Why didn’t you tell me that it was going to make it better for you? … I had no information. I just don’t understand how all this stuff comes to be,” she said, asking Bullock how he received his information.
Bullock replied that it came directly from staff.
Maxwell also backed the change, pointing to past practice. “During last term of council, our meetings started at 1 p.m. and were finished, 90 per cent of the time, by 3 p.m.,” she said. “We waste so much time sitting here arguing, listening to people criticizing other members at the table frequently … it’s not proper behaviour and that’s what’s making the meetings so long.”
At the Aug. 6 meeting, both Truelove and Fournier confirmed staff favoured one monthly meeting instead of two. “Twice a month is very onerous for the staff,” Truelove said then. “We thought it would be best if we reduced the number of meetings to one a month.”
Despite the bylaw change, passed under strong mayor powers, Paula Banks signalled she will bring forward a motion Sept. 15 to amend the township’s procedural bylaw to restore two monthly meetings.
Stay up to date—check out our Rideau Lakes coverage.
All council and committees meetings, the agendas, minutes and videos can be found on the Rideau Lakes website.
