Earlier this month, the Nova Scotia government removed the public’s ability to file complaints about municipal politicians breaking the municipal code of conduct.
This system wasn’t in place for long. The provincial government introduced the municipal code of conduct only a year ago. However, Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities (NSFM) president and Yarmouth mayor Pam Mood told CBC a few municipalities received a flood of complaints, ranging from serious matters to complaints labelled as frivolous.
For now, municipal code of conduct complaints can only be submitted by municipal councillors who are within the same government as the member they’re complaining about.
Mood says the province needs to find a way to deal with unserious complaints before reintroducing the ability to file complaints to the public. In a post on Facebook, Bridgewater mayor David Mitchell elaborated on some of the issues that came about because of this complaints system.
“This is a very positive step, as I’m sure we can all agree,” reads Mitchell’s Facebook post. “I applaud this provincial government for taking that step after over a decade of asking for it. Like a lot of new pieces of legislation or policies, however, there can be some hiccups along the way, and this has been no different.”
Mitchell says every complaint received is fully investigated, but like Mood, he mentions there is “no mechanism to address any complaints that have nothing to do with the actual Code of Conduct.” Mood and Mitchell both mention complaints coming in about how councillors vote on certain issues, and not on violations of the municipal code of conduct. Mitchell ends off his Facebook post saying he hopes to see the complaint system unpaused.
This all came about a few weeks after an investigation was launched into Halifax mayor Andy Fillmore allegedly misleading the public regarding the role of the chief administrative officer’s role in municipal government. Fillmore had posited over the summer that the mayor reports to the CAO, who Fillmore said holds the most power.
Resident Peter Linfield told CBC he submitted the complaint about Fillmore, and later told the national broadcaster that he found this pause on public complaints limited accountability.
Accountability is top of mind for many HRM residents in the wake of Fillmore begging premier Tim Houston for strong mayor powers to bypass his own council, which he did not receive.
The positive aspect of this complaint system is that politically active community members can hold their politicians accountable in an official capacity. The downside is that without a system to weed out frivolous complaints, investigators get clogged up when there are better complaints to focus on.
In a press release sent out on Oct. 28, NSFM states that in some cases, complaints contained threats that were handed over to law enforcement.
We asked our readers last week what they thought of the complaints system going on pause; specifically, we asked if residents should be able to make complaints, or if it should be left up to councillors who, theoretically, best understand the municipal code of conduct.
A total of 988 people voted in our poll, with an overwhelming majority of 95.14% (940 people) saying the public should be able to submit formal complaints about our politicians. Only 4.86% (48 people) voted in favour of leaving the municipal code of conduct complaints to councillors sitting in the same government.
Fortunately, it sounds like this is only a pause on the system, and complaints filed before the date it was closed will still be investigated.