{"id":121,"date":"2015-03-25T17:44:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T17:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rf.podcastfixit.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/25\/new-era-of-cooperation-dawns-at-city\/"},"modified":"2015-06-01T19:40:32","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T19:40:32","slug":"new-era-of-cooperation-dawns-at-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/03\/25\/new-era-of-cooperation-dawns-at-city\/","title":{"rendered":"New era of cooperation dawns at city hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Frank<\/b>
www.thesuburban.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Laval\u2019s ruling and opposition parties have worked out a compromise on new rules to run city council meetings. The winners? Laval citizens.<\/p>\n

The March 10 city council meeting signaled a sea change in Laval\u2019s hitherto-acrimonious municipal debate. Politicians set aside their partisan differences to hammer out the new rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe visited three other cities, learned some of their best practises, and then set about adapting them to serve Laval\u2019s needs,\u201d Councillor Christiane Yoakim, who chairs council meetings, told reporters the following day at a news conference in Mayor Marc Demers\u2019 office.<\/p>\n

The most conspicuous change will be to move question period close to the beginning of council meetings, soon after the agenda is adopted. Citizens hitherto had to cool their heels, sometimes enduring hours of tedious policy discussion.<\/p>\n

From now on, citizens will get 90 minutes to exercise their legal right to pose questions to Laval\u2019s elected representatives, Yoakim said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat can be extended another 30 minutes, if two-thirds of council votes in favour of doing so,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re opening the way to dialogue and democracy,\u201d Yoakim declared, adding that it took nine months to bring the reforms to fruition.<\/p>\n

Mayor Demers underscored that the proposed changes went through extensive vetting and consultation during that period, before they saw the light of day last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consulted the official opposition [Jean-Claude Gob\u00e9\u2019s Action Laval party] and the independent councillors, who came back with suggested changes,\u201d he smiled, \u201cmost of which we adopted.\u201d<\/p>\n

This collaborative approach occurs routinely in federal and provincial parliamentary committees, but is more rarely seen in municipal political discourse. It paid off. When last week\u2019s vote came up, Action Laval councillors lined up in solid support of the new measures. The only councillors to vote against were the two independents: Pierre Anthian and Alain Lecompte.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid we get everything we want?\u201d Gob\u00e9 asked rhetorically. \u201cNo. As the official opposition, we have a duty to negotiate compromise. That\u2019s why we ultimately supported it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nThe whole world is watching<\/b><\/p>\n

The advent of webcasting is also influencing the tenor of city council debate, because excessive rhetorical theatrics are counterproductive on the small screen.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\nAs The Suburban<\/i> reported last week, the city tested telecasting technology during the March 10 council meeting. Mayor Demers said that the recording, which will not be broadcast, was conducted in anticipation of televising council meetings via the Internet, possibly as soon as the June council meeting.<\/p>\n

Gob\u00e9 emphasized that it\u2019s important to interest citizens in the political process by enabling them to view city council meetings from the comfort of their home. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe political class must take its share of the blame for citizens\u2019 disaffection with its leadership,\u201d Gob\u00e9 opined, and suggested that to do otherwise would be dangerous in a rapidly radicalizing world. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to encourage the public to engage in political life,\u201d he urged. \u201cIf we don\u2019t make the effort to do so, Quebec and Canada could witness the same drift toward the extremism that we see arising in many European countries. Political disillusionment leaves a void that special interest groups and extremist parties are all-too-eager to fill. We have to prevent that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nChristiane Yoakim<\/b><\/div>\n
\n(Photo \u00a9 Robert Frank)<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n

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By Robert Frankwww.thesuburban.com Laval\u2019s ruling and opposition parties have worked out a compromise on new rules to run city council meetings. The winners? Laval citizens. The March 10 city council meeting signaled a sea change in Laval\u2019s hitherto-acrimonious municipal debate. Politicians set aside their partisan differences to hammer out the new rules. \u201cWe visited three<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNew era of cooperation dawns at city hall - Newscoverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newscoverage.org\/index.php\/2015\/03\/25\/new-era-of-cooperation-dawns-at-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New era of cooperation dawns at city hall - Newscoverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Robert Frankwww.thesuburban.com Laval\u2019s ruling and opposition parties have worked out a compromise on new rules to run city council meetings. 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