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County councillors met in closed session Tuesday for 3.5 hours

'We appreciate that the public often has questions about why these sessions are held in confidence,' says warden, noting they followed protocols
2020-03-11 County JO-002
County of Simcoe council chambers. Jessica Owen/BarrieToday

County of Simcoe councillors met in closed session for three-and-a-half hours on Tuesday morning. However what was discussed and what was decided as a result of the session is unclear.

During Tuesday’s joint committee of the whole and council meeting, a planned closed session was bumped up on the agenda to happen earlier in the meeting. Councillors went into closed session at 11 a.m. and didn’t emerge until 2:40 p.m.

“We have a couple of items on our agenda that we suspect will be very lengthy and important deliberations,” said Warden George Cornell when explaining the schedule change to councillors at the beginning of the meeting.

There were three motions up for discussion during the closed-session portion of the meeting. According to the agenda, the first matter was concerning a proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land under the Procurement, Fleet and Property department.

The second matter was concerning a proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land, but under the Forestry department.

The third matter, involving the Solid Waste Management department, was concerning potential litigation and a position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations.

BarrieToday reached out to the County of Simcoe requesting an interview with Cornell to ask about the unusually lengthy closed-session meeting.

The Warden instead issued the following statement.

“We had a lengthy discussion in closed session yesterday about county matters,” said Cornell in his statement issued Wednesday. “We appreciate that the public often has questions about why these sessions are held in confidence. County council and our legislative services staff always work to ensure transparency and abide by legislative requirements under the Municipal Act.

“All our municipalities follow these protocols and most council meetings, at all levels of government, have a closed session portion – this is a very normal process,” he said.

Cornell said closed sessions occur when confidential items such as ongoing negotiation, contracts, financial, labour or legal matters are being discussed by council, and if made public, could result in harming the position of the county and its taxpayers.

“Closed sessions also occur to protect the rights and proprietary information of individuals and organizations,” he said.

After councillors emerged from the closed session, a majority voted in favour to approve what was discussed in closed session on all three items, however not all councillors were visible during the livestream, and some had their cameras turned off during voting.

Votes are also not recorded during committee of the whole, and no recorded vote was requested when council ratified the decisions. As a result, how some individuals voted was not clear.


Jessica Owen

About the Author: Jessica Owen

Jessica Owen is an experienced journalist working for Village Media since 2018, primarily covering Collingwood and education.
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