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On April 18th I was notified by the board that “Naming Committees are not public” as a result of my request to attend the naming committee meeting involving Chippewa.
As a constituent, that means that I have been formally prohibited from attending the meeting of the naming committee considering Chippewa. I have had a chance to review your by-laws. By-Law 117 item 2 indicates “All meetings, except those subject to section 207(2) of the Education Act (no exempt conditions of which apply in this case), shall be open to the public.“
This is most disturbing.
Apparently, your board was investigated by the Ombudsman for failing to be transparent to the public resulting from the handling of the proposed closure of the Widdifield Secondary School at that time in 2017. This total absence of transparency has reappeared here.
I have previously indicated publicly that I will be contacting the Ministry of Education if the board continues to ignore the strong views of 3,000 citizens of the region regarding the naming of Chippewa.
You may regard this as another request to attend meetings of the naming committee regarding Chippewa in accordance with your current By-Law. Should such a request be denied, contact with the Minister will include my serious concerns as well as the total lack of transparency of this matter as the public has been denied full transparency by way of closed meetings of a committee of the board.
In view of identical past behaviour, I would also notify the Ombudsman and provide him with complete follow-up details.
Would you kindly advise when I can attend your naming committee meeting?
Yours truly,
Steve Brown
Editor's note: Mr. Brown was also excluded from the May 17 meeting of the committee.
