Midland, Penetanguishene and Tiny were all found to have failed to properly advertise a 2022 tri-municipality Huronia Airport meeting.
According to a recent report from the office of the Ontario ombudsman, an investigation began shortly after the April meeting when a complaint was registered.
The complainant stated televised access to the meeting was neither available nor announced as unavailable through television by any of the three municipalities.
Coverage of the meeting from April 19, 2022 by MidlandToday can be read in the article ‘Sky's the limit for Huronia Airport as task force lands ambitious report’.
In advance of the meeting, the three municipalities advertised that the public could watch proceedings via Rogers Television, the local station which carries simulcasts of Midland and Penetanguishene council meetings as scheduling permits.
The public was informed that they could also attend via access through Zoom, provided by Penetanguishene’s staff.
However, no live television coverage occurred for the event with spectators relying either on Zoom to view the proceedings or by watching the livestream through Penetanguishene’s YouTube channel; Rogers did broadcast the meeting the following day.
The ombudsman's report found that by not updating the public accordingly about the lack of television coverage, the three municipalities contravened Municipal Act open meeting rules as well as their own respective procedural bylaws for providing due notice.
Additionally, none of the municipalities had recorded minutes of the event.
As a result, the ombudsman's report recommended that the municipalities show greater vigilance in adhering to their individual and collective obligations, keeping such affairs up to date and recorded for better transparency, and to have its members trained on open meeting requirements.
In response to the report, Midland was stated to show compliance which was complimented by the ombudsman, while both Penetanguishene and Tiny held counterpoints regarding the status of the meeting which the ombudsman dismissed.
Penetanguishene additionally raised attention to the Zoom and YouTube accessibility options, which the ombudsman dismissed given that the complaint centered around the televised aspect.
All three councils were required to pass a resolution outlining how they would address the report.
In an early November meeting of Midland’s council, a resolution was passed without further comment stating that the town would accept and support the report’s recommendations, and continue to improve accountability and transparency of its meeting practices.
Notably at the meeting’s start, Mayor Bill Gordon informed the audience that the meeting would be broadcast on Rogers “when available”.
Penetanguishene held its council meeting the same day.
Mayor Doug Rawson addressed the report and gave a small explanation of its inclusion to the public, but neither staff nor the rest of council had further comment.
Council passed the motion for the town to follow the ombudsman’s recommendations, adding that the town would no longer direct the public to view meetings through Rogers Television.
Over in Tiny Township, the report was brought forward recently as a matter of consideration.
Following a simple exchange regarding clarification on the ombudsman's role, council passed a motion read by Mayor Dave Evans that the recommendations be taken into consideration – a standard resolution as with other matters of consideration for the municipality.
