One St. Albert councillor says training workshops held in camera this past term should not continue after the election, but other councillors say the workshops provided a valuable space to learn on the job.
St. Albert city council held a number of informal workshops after the new council was inaugurated in 2017. Initially, the workshops were not governed by any rules, but a policy restricted workshops to council training sessions in July of 2018. The policy outlines that workshops don’t have formal minutes and are designed to “train, educate, or issue alerts to council on a specific topic.”
No council decisions are made in the workshops, and no material presented covers “any topic that advances the business of the city or an existing council motion,” the policy states. The policy also requires the public to be notified of the workshops
Some topics covered over the years include parks planning, a social program review, cannabis, priority-based business, media training, a Municipal Development Plan workshop, and options for addressing the city’s financial position related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Council’s three most recent workshops — two of which were the only workshops held in 2021 — were not held in private, but publicly streamed on YouTube. These workshops included an additional MDP workshop, an off-site levy workshop, and a recreation facility workshop.
Coun. Sheena Hughes argued even if the private meetings were “primarily dominated by administration,” they still had an influence on how council made decisions going forward.
“The public’s unaware of what’s happening there,” Hughes said. “They’re not aware of what’s being disclosed to council … If I have a conversation with anybody, it can influence that person’s decision-making process.”
Hughes gave the example of a workshop from 2017 that reviewed procedure bylaw for council’s public-hearing process, and gathered feedback from councillors. Later, on Jan. 15, 2018, motions to change to the public-hearing process came before council. These motions were debated and voted on in public.
During this council meeting, Chris Belke, St. Albert’s chief legislative officer at the time, gave a brief background on the reason workshops were being incorporated into council’s schedule.
“Workshops are an opportunity council has had for many years, but it’s not one that has been widely used in St. Albert,” Belke said. “It’s an opportunity we recognize that seems suitable for some of the material we felt council needed to see.”
Hughes said the workshops council attended over the years were “on topic,” but that some topics, such as one governance review workshop, were quite broad.
“What does the public know about what’s happening in these meetings?” Hughes asked. “Hopefully, the next council will say, ‘We’re putting an end to it,’ instead of just saying, 'That’s what we’ve always done.'”
Mayor Cathy Heron noted workshops serve a different purpose from council meetings.
“We use workshops as a tool to bring council up to speed on an issue. Sometimes they’re in private and sometimes they’re not,” Heron said. “Regardless, any decision is made at council. The motion gets put on the floor and debated publicly.”
Heron said she encourages all members of council — including the mayor — to educate themselves.
“You cannot make a decision if you’re not educated,” Heron said. "You can’t just expect to walk onto the job and know what to do.”
Other members of council who attended the workshops said they helped foster learning.
Coun. Jacquie Hansen — who alongside Coun. Ray Watkins is not seeking re-election — said she sees the workshops as a “an extremely important tool for council.” As to whether more workshops could be held in public, Hansen said it depends on the issues up for discussion.
“I’m not opposed to workshops being in the public,” Hansen said. “I think it’s a little easier, really, for new councillors to ask questions when they aren’t being scrutinized by the public … I think there’s a time, for sure, to be in camera, and there’s a time for workshops to be in public as well.”
Hansen noted land issues, a legal issue, or a labour issue — for example, an issue with human resources — are topics that could be important for council to discuss in private.
Workshops not new: chief legislative officer
St. Albert city council has always received orientation training after the council's inauguration. This year, orientation training will cover topics such as the legal and legislative code of conduct, municipal governance, media training, and regional collaboration.
In an email sent to The Gazette Tuesday morning, David Leflar, the city's chief legislative officer, said workshops "in the broad sense" have been practiced since before the most recent council's term of office.
"Information sessions with council for the purpose of allowing administration to educate or brief council on particular topics or issues have been held for many years, although not always referred to as ‘workshops,’" Leflar said. "What was new in 2018 was council’s adoption of a specific council policy on workshops to put more process and rigour around when and for what purposes a workshop can be held and the rules for conducting it."
Leflar noted council workshops are open to the public, unless there is a "specific Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) based reason" to hold them in camera.
"We expect some future workshops may be open, and some may be closed, depending on the subject matter," Leflar said.
Neighbouring municipalities
Barry Turner, mayor of the Town of Morinville, said in addition to holding orientation at the beginning of each council term, Morinville also has shorter workshop sessions on specific topics at various times during the term.
Some examples he gave were professional development workshops, including governance workshops, and media training. Additionally, Turner said some team-building sessions are often included.
“From time to time there are discussions about how council works together,” Turner said. “I think every council needs to spend some time talking about developing that team concept and setting the governance culture of the team.”
Turner — who has 20 years of experience serving as a councillor and then mayor — said it is “quite common” to have public officials receive “as much relevant training as the budget and time will allow.”
“It’s a big role, and there’s so many aspects to it,” Turner said. “Even if you’re serving a full four-year term, you’re not going to learn it all. I strongly encourage all elected officials to take advantage of any opportunities they can to learn about matters relevant to their role.”
As for whether there is room to hold some of the workshops in public, Turner said there could be a benefit to bringing the public along for some parts of the council orientation. He said there could be room for a “hybrid approach” to have some sessions in public.
“There’s some educational opportunities for everybody there,” Turner said. “However, if you do have a session in public, you’ll get fewer questions, and people won’t be as comfortable to ask what they feel might be seen to be a silly question.”
Alanna Hnatiw, the mayor of Sturgeon County, said her council holds a week-long orientation workshop at the start of term. This workshop covers strategic planning, the corporate business plan, and the code of conduct.
Whether council has additional workshops, she said, “depends on the schedule.”
“Depending on the board and committee you may end up sitting on, there may be extra training required for that,” Hnatiw said.
Other councillors see value
Other members of St. Albert city council’s most recent term also said they saw value in the workshops.
Similar to Turner, Coun. Wes Brodhead said workshops held in public could mean that conversations would become political, rather than allowing councillors to ask questions they may be nervous might show a lack of understanding.
“There’s sometimes the issue of being able to have an open and honest discussion around things that are going on without having the discussion appear in the paper the next day,” Brodhead said. “Then the conversation is a whole different conversation, it becomes a political one.”
Coun. Ken MacKay noted three councillors — Hansen, Watkins, and himself — were new to council. He said times the workshops were held in private always seemed reasonable.
“You have administration, staff members, maybe outside consultants or outside expertise, who ask for the session to be in camera because there’s proprietary information, or they want to have an open and frank discussion with council,” MacKay said.
Coun. Natalie Joly said if the sessions were completely in public, councillors would no longer be able to seek advice from lawyers, which she said would be “concerning.”
“It depends on the information and the context, whether it’s protected or not,” Joly said. “Ultimately we’re bound by Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) legislation.”
Like Hansen, Joly said certain issues must be discussed in private.
“At the end of the day, we all need to continue to learn, and whether we’re required by legislation to do that in private or not will depend on the subject,” Joly said.
Coun. Ray Watkins did not respond to The Gazette’s request for an interview.
