Loose lips to be tightened

Local reporters may find it harder to pick up deep-throated municipal news tips thanks to a proposed amendment to North Bay council’s procedural bylaw. The amendment was presented Monday night at the committee meeting of council.

It deals with closed-door meetings, or in-camera as they’re know in bureaucratic jargon, and will require the signing of a confidentiality agreement either at the beginning of the term or as required.

As well the amendment, authored by city solicitor Michael Burke, would prevent any "member, officer or employee" from disclosing what went on in an in-camera meeting, "unless expressly authorized to do so by council or required by law."

Chief Administrative Officer Tim Sheffield could still brief council under the amendment, as long as no decisions are made at the briefing. Sheffield said the issue is really one of confidentiality.

Council is concerned, Sheffield said, because information given at past closed-door briefings has "not respected the confidentiality that they wanted."

"And they feel that with the proposed sanction on breach of confidentially that an in-camera meeting may hold, the best place to be dealing with that information even when a decision isn’t asked for will be at an in-camera meeting rather than a briefing," Sheffield said.

CAO briefings will still be held, but only for information purposes, Sheffield said. "They don’t make decisions at those briefings at all and they never have done because I’ve been very careful that they don’t make decisions at those things because they’re not supposed to."

Anyone who violates the confidentiality agreement could face legal sanctions, Sheffield said. "First of all somebody would have to charge them with an offence for breaching the bylaw and then it would have to go before a judge who will have to decide whether a breach of the bylaw has occurred and whether or not a penalty is warranted."

Local media reps asked Sheffield if a breach of confidentiality had ever taken place. "From anecdotal information that I have, it appears it has occurred," Sheffield replied, without mentioning any specific incident.

The amendment, he added, wasn’t an attempt to clamp down on loose lips. "It’s a way," Sheffield said, "of controlling the business of the corporation."