One Man Is An Island

I’ve been writing another blog over the past few days, but I’m going to interrupt that to post about two things that happened at last night’s (July 6) Council meeting. The meeting was otherwise short and a bit mundane. One very significant thing happened that probably will get a lot of buzz, particularly in progressive circles. I’ll deal with that second.

Miywasin

At the end of the meeting, there was a motion to donate a piece of land to Miywasin Friendship Centre with a view to build housing for members of the Indigenous community. That’s not controversial, and I can’t imagine anyone being opposed to it. I’m glad it’s moving forward, and it is absolutely a good news story for our community. Councillor Young had some warm and positive comments and noted that this is “near and dear” to his heart. I wish he would have stopped there.

His next comment was, “my family also benefits from this.” 

I want to give him the benefit of the doubt here, and assume he either misspoke or was speaking broadly, using “family” to mean “community”. However, on the surface this comment sounded very much like the kind of thing you should say just before recusing yourself from a vote. A piece of land valued at $400k is no small thing, and outright saying that your family benefits from the decision is absolutely the definition of how recusal works. The motion was going to pass unanimously, with or without Clr. Young in the room. He should either have not said that, or recused himself immediately after he did.

Water Not Coal

The other big piece was around Clr Cocks’ attempt to have Council (through the Mayor) send a letter to the Premier and several ministers outlining “Council’s concern regarding any coal-related activity that may jeopardize watershed protection and drinking water security.” That’s a pretty soft statement, and one that would be perfectly appropriate to send to sitting ministers. But the merit of the motion itself isn’t really the issue I have here. Clr. Cocks made the motion, and nobody seconded it. The Mayor foreshadowed this. Just prior, Cocks suggested that the motion should be on the floor (ie motioned and seconded), and then debate / questions around it could proceed. Mayor Clark said, “but if it doesn’t get seconded, then…” and waived her hand. From the exchange, it is clear that she knew it wasn’t going to be seconded, and was giving Cocks the opportunity to have a discussion first.

What I find…. disappointing (to say the least), is that nobody was willing to second the motion SPECIFICALLY to have debate around it. This was Council sending a message to Cocks that he is increasingly on an island. There was an opportunity for any given Councillor to explain why they opposed the motion. Maybe they felt it was performative. Maybe they want to play nice in the sandbox with the Premier (with whom several of them just spent time in Calgary). Or maybe they just want Cocks to know that he is not one of them. 

Someone could have, after seconding the motion and opening debate, said something to the effect of, “I support clean water, and I think a robust discussion around coal mining is needed, but I don’t support this particular motion” or “A letter to the Premier may damage our relationship with the Province, and we should proceed more tactfully”. Instead we got silence, which now opens up an awful lot of speculation. Who is in Councillors’ ears? Did the rest collude ahead of time and agree that nobody was going to second the motion? It certainly looks that way from the exchange. They all had the opportunity to explain themselves, and they chose not to take it.

I knew this was going to happen eventually. Several Councillors campaigned on both sides of the fence, and presented themselves as much more progressive than they truly are. We are starting to see their true colours now. I fear Cocks is going to have a very challenging three years. And I fear that we’re going to increasingly see a lack of debate around issues, which sets us up for a repeat of prior Councils. I used to get very annoyed at former Clr. Dumanowski's long-winded diatribes prior to voting on motions, but I can respect that you always knew where he stood, and you knew why. Clarity is important because it speaks to a person’s integrity. I really think there are a few people at that table who should reflect on that.

“Lord have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of”,

- Adam