Change proposed to start time of city council meetings

All of you who rush home once every three weeks to watch city council meetings at 4:30 p.m. may soon get a little more time for your commute.

City councillors will be asked next week to approve changes to their procedural bylaw that will move council meetings to 5 p.m.

The change is being recommended by a procedure bylaw task force comprised of Mayor Matthew Shoemaker, Couns. Luke Dufour and Matthew Scott, as well as the city's chief administrative office, city solicitor, city clerk and deputy city clerk.

And the formal city council meeting won't actually start at 5 p.m., because councillors will meet as planning committee at that hour, with city council immediately afterwards.

In another change, councillors will be asked to remove mayoral proclamations from the council agenda.

"The task force surveyed other northern Ontario cities regarding proclamation processes," says Rachel Tyczinski, city clerk, in a report prepared for Monday's council meeting.

"Of the municipalities who replied (Timmins, North Bay and Thunder Bay) none deal with proclamations at council meetings," Tyczinski said.

"It is proposed that proclamations be made by the mayor and communicated by the mayor's office to various media."

In a further proposed change, the agenda for each Monday city council meeting will be released at the end of the business day on Thursday, instead of Friday as is currently the case.

Next week's city council meeting will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m. Monday.