SYDNEY, N.S. — With public health restrictions keeping use of the CBRM council chamber on ice, the municipality’s new mayor has engineered a plan to hold the first meeting of the newly-elected council at Centre 200.
Amanda McDougall said that with eight newcomers among the 12 councillors elected in last month’s vote, she believes that council would be better served by an in-person meeting. On Tuesday, she confirmed that to facilitate that option the Nov. 24 meeting will be held in the concourse of the downtown Sydney entertainment venue as it allows for better social distancing than the chamber in city hall.
“It’s important to meet in person because there are so many new faces around the council table,” said McDougall, who added she and council have been taking part in orientation sessions conducted by both the municipality and the province.
“We used Zoom for our virtual council meetings throughout COVID, but that does not offer us the ability to formulate the team and to connect. It was great for an established council of four years to check in, get some things done and check some boxes, but for those of us who are going to be shaping what the next four years look like, and to figure out and educate one another on the processes, we really do need to have that in-person meeting because it changes the dynamic.”
The new mayor said that while Cape Breton is a safe haven during the ongoing pandemic, it’s important to continue to adhere to public health measures that includes gathering limits, social distancing and mask-wearing.
“We have to keep up with the COVID restrictions and guidelines for social distancing because we’re entering into the second wave, and even though it is not here on the island, we have to do everything in our power to avoid community spread like we’re now seeing in Halifax,” said McDougall.
The in-person council gathering, which will be closed to the public but livestreamed online, is good news for new councillors eager to get to work on the issues they talked about during the campaign leading up to the Oct. 17 election.
District 7 Coun. Steve Parsons said he welcomes the unexpected opportunity to meet up with his new colleagues on a face-to-face, but spatially distanced, basis.
“I am in favour of the personal meetings as long as we respect all of the COVID rules — I like the personal touch, I have been doing virtual meetings for months and sometimes it can be a bit hard on the head,” said Parsons, who is the Eskasoni First Nation’s general manager of corporate services.
“As long as we respect the rules of engagement by constantly cleaning our hands, wearing a mask and social distancing then I think it’s appropriate until we are faced with cases in our district and then I would think we take a different approach if that arises.”
As for the meeting’s agenda, McDougall said a number of carryover issues from last term must be dealt with before council moves on to setting the terms of its mandate.
“There will be an informal part during the meeting where we will sit down and talk about how we see our council operating for the next four years,” she said.
“What will our council schedule look like? Will we do things like allocate certain days for certain issues? We know it’s hard to have meaningful decision-making when we’re exhausted after sitting in the same room together for hours and hours.
“That’s not to say there won’t be long meetings because there are complicated and complex issues to be discussed, but if we can set ourselves up to have more focus on those issues then we are doing better by the community and it allows us to be better decision makers.”
McDougall said it’s also important for council to establish a game plan or blueprint to work from over the next four years.
“We need an intensive and important strategic planning process that will help us set our goals,” she said.
“That is really, really important because it didn’t happen in the last council. We did have a list of priorities and goals at the end, but to have it at the beginning of our term on council would be an amazing tool to have as we move forward.”
Another one of council’s first duties will be to elect a deputy mayor. Former councillor Ivan Doncaster, who was defeated by Parsons in the last election, was the most recent to hold the position. The deputy mayor is elected by council with the stipulation that no councillor can hold the post for more than two consecutive years.
David Jala is a political reporter at the Cape Breton Post.
