The problem with unelected people on city committees
Joanne Chianello | CBC News | Posted: January 31, 2019 9:00 AM | Last Updated: January 31, 2019
Councillor denied spot on transit commission, 4th place finisher gets appointed
Do Michael Olsen's personal beliefs about abortion have any bearing on whether he should be appointed to the transit commission? Of course not.
What about the fact he doesn't want to answer whether he thinks climate change is caused by humans?
After all, the LRT is being touted as the city's best way to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and OC Transpo is piloting electric buses in the next few years. So that's trickier.
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Either way, you don't get to decide if it matters.
A panel of city officials selected the four citizen appointees to the transit commission, and council ultimately approved them.
They are unelected citizens and they don't answer — or at least, don't have to answer — to the public.
No accountability from citizen commissioners
It was Coun. Shawn Menard who raised concerns about Olsen, a federal public servant who lives in Kanata and has been a daily transit user for 25 years.
He also ran unsuccessfully for the Ottawa Catholic School Board in last fall's election, when he answered a survey for the Campaign Life Coalition in which he said he believed women should not have access to abortions.
Olsen's views on the subject are his right, and Menard's motion that his nomination be reconsidered based on these revelations was ill-considered.
He knew it, too. Because after council, Menard told reporters that "the bigger point here, I think, is the denial of climate change and being on the transit commission, which doesn't make any sense."
Olsen politely refused an interview with both CBC News and CBC Radio's All In A Day (after showing initial enthusiasm) because transit commission chair Coun. Allan Hubley preferred he didn't speak to media before an orientation session with OC Transpo.
Hubley, however, has no power to prevent commissioners from speaking to reporters, and two other commissioners did indeed speak with All In A Day host Alan Neal Wednesday afternoon.
When reporters asked Olsen directly whether he believes climate change is caused by humans, he said he did not see the relevance of the issue and declined further comment.
But Olsen's beliefs on climate change may well be pertinent.
Say the transit commissioners are voting on whether OC Transpo should buy electric buses — an issue that is likely to come up this term.
Would Olsen's vote be swayed by personal feelings?
It will be hard to tell, just like it's difficult sometimes to discern the thinking behind a councillor's vote.
But here's the thing: we elected councillors. We vetted their views on the world, which were out in the open and fair game, and we voted in people who, as much as possible, reflect our own values.
We don't get to do that with citizen members of the transit commission.
These public commissioners — who are not paid, despite being asked to think deeply about a vital city service — don't answer to the public, even though they have the same powers as elected councillors who oversee a $500-million OC Transpo budget and a transit network that incudes the soon-to-be-rolling LRT system.
Councillor out, failed candidate in
It's difficult not to also see some politics at play in Wednesday's selections.
Two of the four new commissioners ran unsuccessfully in last fall's election — details their official bios don't mention — raising questions about whether the role is seen as a political stepping stone.
What may be most egregious is the appointment of Anthony Carricato.
Not that there's anything objectionable about Carricato himself — he's a longtime staffer for the Speaker of the House of Commons and a Glebe-based community activist well-versed in city issues, if only an "occasional" transit user.
He also ran against Menard in last October's municipal election.
Think about that for a minute.
Shawn Menard was actually elected by the people of Capital ward. He ranked being on the planning committee and transit commission as his first and second priorities — requests that were both denied by the mayor.
Meanwhile, his competitor Carricato — who came in fourth in a field of five candidates — has been appointed to the commission.
This situation is surely an affront to many of the voters of Capital ward who duly elected Menard as their representative.
Instead, they are being represented on transit commission by eight councillors from other wards and four citizens about whom we know little, and who are not accountable to the public.
Having so-called citizen members of the transit commission may seem like a progressive move in theory, but it ends up being a disavowal of democracy.