During the November 2011 civic election in Esquimalt, candidates expressed support for transparency, if elected. Well, they were elected, and to date this council has had 10 council meetings, six committee of the whole meetings and 15 in-camera meetings. Not too transparent.
Nevertheless, to give these meetings some rationale, Esquimalt has had to dispose of some staff, which understandably needs to be done in-camera.
What about the police report? The reason to go in-camera for this issue was to answer the question: Should the report be released to the public?
It was not to discuss the report. It was to discuss a confidential clause in the request for proposals, which is posted online. So to protect comments made by council, it seems they find it easier to go in-camera and that way avoid public scrutiny.
This was only one example. What other meetings were in-camera that really should not have been?
Rod Lavergne
Esquimalt
