MINTO – If you work during the day, you might be out of luck if you want to attend a council meeting in the new year.
Approved Tuesday evening, the town of Minto is changing most council meeting start times in 2025 to 3 p.m., following a notice of motion from Mayor Dave Turton, who said a lot of the reasons he suggested reconsidering the scheduled times were financial.
Council meetings are currently held twice a month on Tuesdays, at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
“This is a situation where we want our taxpayers to be happy with this change,” said Turton. “I mean, up until a number of years ago, all the meetings were at night.”
Following some debate, council also moved to schedule an evening meeting at 7 p.m. during February, April, June, October and December to accommodate residents who are unable to make the afternoon times. Later meeting times will also be considered when contentious issues are on the agenda.
"Bear in mind, if there's an important issue coming up, you're probably going to take time off work to be here anyway," said Coun. Paul Zimmerman. "But a hybrid system would likely catch most people adequately I think."
Deputy Mayor Jean Anderson disagreed, arguing that changing the majority of times to afternoons would not only prevent working residents from attending meetings but from putting their names forward for future council positions.
Commenting on how difficult it is to make afternoon meetings from her day job as a nurse, Anderson said it's important council is "cognizant of trying to bring people onto council that are not all retired people."
"I had to apply to have my whole schedule changed ... to attend the meetings the way they are now so I'm just saying it's a process that people have to consider," said Anderson. "People can't just take an afternoon off to come to council meeting in today's day and age."
Echoing Anderson's comments, Coun. Ed Podniewicz said he currently takes one afternoon off a month from his job as the chief building official for the township of Howick and would have to take off two with the changes.
On the fence, Coun. Judy Dirksen said she felt the township already has an effective hybrid council meeting system that she believes gives "equal access" for residents to access at least one council meeting a month whether they work in the daytime or not.
Asking whether there would be public consultation on the changes during the question period, resident Roger Nachuck used the town's question period to say the proposed changes aren't fair to taxpayers who work during the day.
"So we don't really have a say in it, it's just whatever you guys decide which is not right for the taxpayers," said Nachuck, addressing council. "We should have a say on it. We pay your wages, you work for us, we don't work for you (and) you should be doing the times that we can come here."
CAO Gregg Furtney said changing to mostly afternoon meetings will save the township between $8,500 and $9,000 in staff overtime costs between the 10 evening meetings, which Furtney said average about two hours.
Furtney also polled staff on the proposed changes and said he's heard no objections.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
