CODES OF CONDUCT FOR MUNICIPAL COUNCILS

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carried this story titled "Cambridge council defers vote on code of conduct". Firstly many councils already have them. Unfortunately for many of those councils they are merely window dressing. Secondly the push right now to get all the Councils within the Region of Waterloo to have somewhat similar Codes of Conduct is due to the simultaneous push to have their very own regional Ombudsman. This too is simply to give citizens either the appearance that city hall cares about how they are treated or more likely simply to better insulate themselves against complaints to the Ontario Ombudsman who has achieved a reputation for doing good investigations.

Since January of this year the Ontario Ombudsman can now investigate the MUSH sector which includes Municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals. This is long overdue. Until last January all he was allowed to do with municipalities was to investigate improper closed door meetings ie. in camera. It has been my experience locally that Woolwich politicians are long on demanding good "behaviour" by citizens while totally disregarding the same rules for themselves. Hence I currently have a few complaints into the provincial (Ontario) Ombudsman regarding Woolwich Township.