Hoping for a more open 2017

This past year, both levels of local government got a slap on the wrist for doing something that is truly the antithesis of working in the public service – doing work that is kept away from the public. Yes, there are certainly times when closed books are called for – sensitive legal information or something pertaining to a specific, identifiable individual, for example.

However, both the city and regional governments were called out in 2016 – and rightfully so – for being unnecessarily secretive.

The first instance came for the City of Oshawa in July when a report by the Ontario Ombudsman concluded that a meeting held in late 2015 that had been dubbed an education and training session with the city-owned Oshawa Power and Utilities Corporation, actually involved some discussion surrounding a potential merger between the utility and its counterparts in Whitby and Pickering four months before such information was made public.

Rightfully so, the Ombudsman called the city out on its methods, saying that “although council did not debate the proposed merger or make a decision, the information presented and the questions asked materially advanced council’s business and decision-making.”

A few months later, when regional council returned following its summer recess, a report by Amberely Gavel, an independent investigator, determined that portions of meetings held to discuss the Durham York Energy Centre – one in December 2015 and another in late January 2016 – “could have been, with good planning and careful management of the flow of the meeting, been made public and transparent.” It was those two meetings that spelled out the future of the incinerator, with the first leading to it failing its acceptance testing and the second leading to an amended contract so that it could retroactively pass.

While the region took the more noble track, with Matt Gaskell, the commissioner of corporate services, noting that while he wasn’t happy with the report, changes would be implemented to ensure it didn’t happen again, the city went the opposite way, with Mayor John Henry saying the Ombudsman was wrong and the meeting needed to be closed. This, despite the fact that if there’s any office in government that knows the ins and outs of the Municipal Act, it’s that of the Ombudsman.

For 2017, one can only hope that both levels of government can take the lessons learned from 2016 and, in turn, strive to operate more openly. After all, it is our tax dollars that not only pay the salaries of those at the city and the region, but also pay for the projects that these meetings are about.