Huron-Kinloss to accept code of conduct

The council for Huron-Kinloss agreed at its meeting in Ripley on Mon, Oct 1 that it move forward to develop a Code of Conduct that members follow hoping to improve accountability and transparency.

The code is similar to the Municipal Act; where rules are in place regarding how a municipal councillor is suppose to perform while representing the municipality.

Council was reminded that this is not a mandatory item, however, it is stressed that with the new focus on Transparency and Accountability for local government that a Code of Conduct helps to define the role and expectations of Council as a whole in turn a document promoting how Council is transparent and accountable.

The second part to implementing a Code of Conduct is enforcement.

The Integrity Commissioner is the party that can be appointed to enforce the Code of Conduct. The commissioner is not mandatory. Council can choose to pass a Code of Conduct, which can be considered as a job description for Council or a road map of how the Township of Huron-Kinloss Council operates but may choose not to appoint an Integrity Commissioner.

If Council chooses to implement the Code of Conduct and wants enforcement measures in place it can move ahead with adopting the policy and will need to discuss options for appointing an Integrity Commissioner.

Council was given a draft Code of Conduct for review, written with the Integrity Commissioner being the enforcement officer behind the policy.

This can be changed as per Council’s direction.

The township will now check with other municipalities in Bruce County to see if anything can be learned by those such as South Bruce Peninsula, who already has a code in place.

It is also possible that Huron-Kinloss could see the sharing of one Integrity Commissioner and one policy that could be shared with other municipalities in the County.

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