Phoning in from the cottage: 5 changes about to happen in local politics

Parental leave for councillors. More meetings closed to the public. Participating in meetings via Skype. 

These are just a few of the ways local city politics will change under the province's new rules.

Bill 68, known as Modernizing Ontario's Municipal Legislation Act, received royal assent on May 30. Most of the changes are either in effect now, or will be in the next few months.

Here are five ways that will change how Hamilton government operates.

Councillors will get parental leave

City councillors can miss as many as 20 consecutive weeks (about five months) of work without their seats being declared vacant. This measure, which didn't exist before, can happen in the event of pregnancy, birth or adoption.

Councillors can phone in 'from their cottages'

Councillors will be able to participate in meetings electronically — by phone, Skype, or other method. Right now, they have to be there in person.

Their participation, however, doesn't count toward quorum, and they can't vote.

Matthew Green, Ward 3 councillor, referenced this change in a sardonic way when illustrating that the changes do little to prevent corruption.

"We can be at our cottage, it looks like now, participating in meetings. That's great," he said.

"I just want to go on the record right now and say I feel like Bill 68 is a bit of a façade."

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board already lets trustees participate and vote by phone.

More discussions will happen behind closed doors

Right now, city councils go in camera for issues around property acquisition, legal matters and discussions about specific employees. Now they can do it for a broader range of reasons.

Those new reasons:

• To talk about information that the feds, province or Crown agency has supplied in confidence.
• To protect trade secrets, or issues around scientific, technical, commercial, financial or labour relations where information has been supplied in confidence. This also applies when that information "could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations."
• To talk about trade secrets that have "monetary value or potential monetary value."
• To discuss a "position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction" for negotiations.​

This change is of interest to Hamilton city council, which asked the province to expand the times it could go behind closed doors. It wanted to do it for "intergovernmental relations" and "sensitive commercial negotiations."

In 2012, Ontario's ombudsman slapped the city's wrist over two closed-door meetings — both on the same day — that should have been public. 

Public can browse conflicts of interest

During meetings, city councillors declare conflicts of interest on items where they stand to gain from the outcome. Maria Pearson of Ward 10, for example, is a landlord, so she declares a conflict on rental housing conversations. Lloyd Ferguson of Ancaster owns a taxi licence and steps away from taxi and Uber-related decisions.

Now councillors and board members will put their conflicts in writing, and those statements will be in a public registry.

Under the new legislation, every municipality will also need an integrity commissioner. Hamilton implemented one, after much debate, in 2007.

Donors can give more to election campaigns

Currently, individuals can contribute a maximum of $750 to municipal election campaigns. That limit is now $1,200.

This will be in place for the municipal election in October 2018.

samantha.craggs@cbc.ca | @SamCraggsCBC