St. Albertans interested in public hearings will soon have two weeks longer to understand the issues at stake.
Council unanimously approved making changes to the procedural bylaw that will give members of the public more time to examine administrative reports prior to the public hearing, and also give councillors more time to consider arguments before making a final decision.
The process began two years ago when Coun. Tim Osborne brought forward a motion to give the public a longer window to see the administrative report and recommendations on a topic prior to the hearing itself.
On July 11, council debated and approved an amendment Coun. Sheena Hughes proposed that varied the details of Osborne’s proposal somewhat, but kept the idea intact and minimized the changes required in the procedural bylaw.
“It’s very similar to what we’re currently doing with just two tweaks. One being that we have the information available earlier to the public and council,” she said.
Under the current bylaw, the agenda package including administration’s report on any given public hearing is posted to the city’s website around 3 p.m. the Friday before the Monday meeting, giving members of the public just three days to read the information and prepare.
The amended bylaw will require the administrative report on the public hearing topic to be made available to the public online before the public hearing is even advertised, 17 days before the public hearing.
“The second thing is we have the opportunity to keep the public hearing open without having to force a close prematurely,” Hughes went on.
Under the current process, councillors conduct the public hearing and then close the public hearing prior to a bylaw being given the first of three readings.
The amended motion will see councillors given the option to conduct all three readings on the same night with unanimous consent as is the current practice, but will also require unanimous consent to close the public hearing. This will mean that if one councillor wants more time to contemplate the issue and consider a decision, the public hearing itself will be kept open until the next week’s council meeting when a final decision is made.
Hughes explained this would also present possible conflicts for councillors who hear feedback from residents after the public hearing has formally been closed but before third reading is given to the bylaw.
“In the end it was two minor changes we had to make to this entire process to make it a much stronger process,” she said. “I honestly believe this is going to bring a lot more validity and value to the public hearing process.”
Osborne said he was pleased to see the bylaw go forward, even if it wasn’t exactly what he had initially proposed, because it reflects collaboration and compromise on council while providing a net benefit to not just the public, but to council as well.
The change means those speaking to issues at public hearing can provide their feedback with all the facts in hand.
“This will give everybody a chance to have a better understanding of what’s being discussed,” he said. “Providing your comments without the full details just isn’t realistic.”
With councillors having now indicated the changes they wish to see, it is now up to administration to bring proposed bylaw changes to council. That’s expected to happen in October.
