Private meetings, no public minutes

Lack of transparency at City’s Recreation and Sports Commission?

For over two years, Recreation, Sports and Community Life Commission meetings have been held in-camera and meeting minutes have been unavailable to the public. The last available minutes are for the November 19 meeting -- in 2014.

A city spokesperson was unable to answer why the meetings have been held in-camera since the fall of 2014. “We like it that way,” seems to be the commonest explanation.

The commission is chaired by Masson-Angers councillor Marc Carrière. Aylmer councillors Richard Bégin and Mike Duggan both sit at the commission as members. There are also several people from the community who are members, and city employees from the Sports and Recreations Department sit in on meetings. All must respect the commitments to confidentiality of information signed during meetings and must avoid sharing information obtained during meetings.

The commission meets monthly and, according to the city website, meetings are open to the public for 15 minutes before their start. That’s when the Bulletin asked the commission why meetings were always held in-camera.

Chairman Carrière replied that “the commission’s operating rules were adopted in 2014; people around the table here work as volunteers and it was decided with the former chairman (Stéphane Lauzon) that meetings would be held in-camera. I don’t think this is a question of hiding anything, but simply that members were more comfortable working this way,” he answered.

While members from the community are volunteers, elected officials do receive an additional annual remuneration. A regular member receives an extra $3,330, while its president gets an additional $7,760.

Yess Gacem, Director of Sports and Recreation, explained that “like the other commissions, Recreation, Sports and Community Life adopted their own rules, including that meetings are held in-camera. We allow the public to participate 15 minutes before every meeting. Each commission works differently, but the city is changing the rules for its committees and commissions so all will eventually operate within the same framework. City council will decide whether meetings will be held in-camera or not,” he said.

Richard Bégin, Deschênes councillor, said that he did not understand why meetings minutes are unavailable to the public. “I chair the Planning Advisory Committee (CCU) where some meetings are held in-camera, but the minutes are made available afterwards.”

According to the city’s website, commissions and committees “give citizens a concrete opportunity to get involved in their community. They are where citizens, partners, elected officials and municipal officials exchange ideas, talk and develop recommendations that will be submitted to the Municipal Council.”