A Winnipeg city councillor wants to give people more time to review and weigh in on administrative reports.
Coun. Janice Lukes (St. Norbert) said she will have a motion before council on June 24 requesting administrative reports be publicly published a minimum of four business days before committee meetings.
Right now, administrative reports are publicly published 96 hours before a committee meeting. However, Lukes said in a news release Monday that period is not restricted to business hours, and includes evenings and weekends. She said that significantly reduces the number of business hours for the public and council to ask questions, register and appear at committees.
“All citizens of Winnipeg and council members should have a reasonable amount of time to review administrative reports and provide meaningful input into decision making and policy creation at city hall” Lukes said.
“The current system of providing only 96 hours of time to prepare for well informed decisions often results in poor decisions and increased costs to taxpayers. Councillors are often forced to make multi-million dollar decisions based on little to no supporting information because of imposed time constraints.”
According to Lukes, the mayor and the Executive Policy Committee get administrative and in-depth reports weeks in advance of committee meetings.
Lukes said a motion she filed in May was denied, allowing all elected members to have meetings with directors to clarify reports within the 96 hour timeframe.
