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Red Deer city council approves committee of the whole meetings

Committee of the whole offers less structured discussion format
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Red Deer City Hall (Photo by Advocate staff).

Red Deer city council will begin to have monthly committee of the whole meetings next year.

Unlike regular council meetings, which are governed by stringent Municipal Government Act regulations, committee of the whole meetings allow a less structured format for discussion.

The committee meetings will allow to discuss and debate issues of the day. But it is not a forum to pass bylaws, change policy, approve budgets, set tax or utility rates or hold statutory public hearings.

Meetings will be chaired by the deputy mayor and the city manager will sit in on them and, if necessary, other city staffers.

A report to council sums up the role of the committee meetings, saying they "allow council to meet in a more informal manner, relaxing procedural rules to receive information, narrow decisions, debate, and digest options, and pre-consider items that will later come before them at a regular meeting of council."

The committee can receive delegations, meet with other municipal representatives, direct administration to get more information on a topic and pass non-binding recommendations to regular council.

Coun. Bruce Buruma led the initiative for council to begin meeting as a committee.

He said on Monday that the format allows council to look at issues and "talk it out.

"I believe in the end this will support governance."

Coun. Lawrence Lee liked the less regimented format of a committee.

"I hope this doesn't morph into something that's too structural and too formal," he said.

Mayor Ken Johnston also believes the committee format will offer opportunities.

"I think we all agree there is this pent up desire … for creativity and the ability to speak in far more coloured terms, if you will, than legislation often allows us to."