Manitoba’s Municipal Relations department is interpreting “public” as applied to city council meetings in a broader way to enable municipal governments to function without exposing anyone to undue risk as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
A department spokesperson told the Thompson Citizen that alternate methods of public participation in council meetings such as livestreaming, teleconferencing or providing recordings after the fact will enable public access to councils’ deliberations. The method chosen should be comparable to public attendance at such meetings.
In the case of public hearings, held to receive feedback from the public about specific decisions, municipalities can hold them if they can provide an equivalent level of public participation. Residents must be able to make presentations, ask questions and register objections or voice their support. If municipalities can not meet these legislative requirements for public participation, public hearings should be postponed until it is safe for members of the public to be physically present.
