INTERIM PROCEDURE BYLAW AMENDMENTS

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT

TO: Council DATE: May 21, 2025 FROM: E. Bolster, Deputy Corporate Officer MEETING DATE: June 3, 2025

INTERIM PROCEDURE BYLAW AMENDMENTS

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT Council give three readings to “Procedure Bylaw No. 677, 2007, Amendment Bylaw No. 1155, 2025” as attached to the report dated May 21, 2025 from the Deputy Corporate Officer titled “Interim Procedure Bylaw Amendments”.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

Option #2: Council may choose not to proceed with the proposed amendments at this time and instead await the larger, more fulsome bylaw amendments anticipated for consideration later in 2025.

Option #3: Council may choose not to proceed with the proposed amendments.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to describe proposed initial bylaw amendments (Attachment “A”) to Council’s Procedure Bylaw No. 677, 2007, the provisions that guide the orderly conduct of Council’s business meetings.

BACKGROUND:

At its May 20, 2025 meeting, Council passed the following resolution to change the start time of Council and Committee of the Whole (COW) meetings:

“THAT Procedure Bylaw No. 677, 2007 be amended to establish a 6:00 p.m. commencement time for both Council and Committee of the Whole meetings.”

While preparing the bylaw amendment, consideration was also given to provisions that could aid in streamlining Council and Committee of the Whole meeting proceedings to ensure effective decision-making in a timely manner.

The proposed Bylaw places the most critical Council business near the beginning of the meeting as set out below:

1. Call to Order
2. Approval of Agenda
3. Public Participation & Question Period (excluding items which are or have been the subject of a public hearing)
4. Bylaws
5. Mayor’s Report
6. Staff Reports
7. Business Arising from Previous Minutes
8. Correspondence
9. Consent Agenda
10. Consideration of Matters Moved from Consent Agenda
11. New Business
12. Motions & Notices of Motion
13. Closed Meeting Resolution
14. Rising Report
15. Adjournment

The substantive amendments to the order of proceedings are detailed below:

For the Committee of the Whole, the Bylaw amendment proposes the following order of proceedings:

1. Call to Order
2. Approval of Agenda
3. Minutes, Receipt & Adoption of
4. Public Participation & Question Period
5. Presentations and Delegations
6. Reports a) Staff Reports b) Portfolio Reports
7. New Business
8. Adjournment

The revised COW format from January 2025 supports the more informal nature of these meetings, allowing a more thorough, in-depth review of reports and to hear presentations and ask questions of both applicants and delegations. As such, petitions and delegations are proposed to be heard exclusively at COW meetings. Provisions governing delegations have been refined as follows:

• the deadline to submit an appearance request has been advanced for operational purposes;
• the allotted time for delegations to address Council has been decreased from 15 to 10 minutes in alignment with practices generally in the region which range from 5 to 10 minutes maximum;
• the allowance for late delegations has been removed, while still providing for urgent or time-sensitive matters to be heard by Council; and
• the number of delegations is limited to three at each COW meeting to ensure Council can have sufficient time to transact View Royal’s business.

As discussed at the May 20, 2025 Council meeting, to ensure effective deliberations with beneficial results, the Bylaw proposes continuing with the same maximum meeting length of three hours.

Finally, as part of the amendment work, staff identified that quorum needed to be added to the Bylaw for a seven-member Council and that all references to “Clerk” could be replaced with the current Community Charter terminology of “Corporate Officer”.

Further amendments will be provided in the coming months, but this first review provides some immediate changes to improve and streamline Council proceedings.

ANALYSIS:

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

Community Impact: The Strategic Plan’s “Community Engagement and Good Governance” priority describes a public desire to see transparency in decision-making and respectful meetings.

The role of Council in that is set out, in part, through its Procedure Bylaw.

Moving meetings to a consistent and earlier start time seeks to improve access to Council’s proceedings for the general public.

Financial Implication: There are no financial implications. Notification of the bylaw amendments are outlined in the Town’s Public Notification Bylaw.

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows:

Strategic Plan: The proposed amendments assist in meeting the strategic goal of achieving organizational excellence for strong internal processes.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOAL:

The desired level of public participation for the recommended option is:

☒ Inform ☒ Consult ☐ Involve ☐ Collaborate ☐ Empower ☐ N/A

TIME CRITICAL:

Changes are not time sensitive; however, if Council wishes to change the Procedure Bylaw, readings can be provided, notification can occur, and the Bylaw can be brought back for consideration of adoption.

CONCURRENCE:

REVIEWED BY:

ATTACHMENTS:

A). Procedure Bylaw No. 677, 2007, Amendment Bylaw No. 1155, 2025 B). Redlined version of Procedure Bylaw No. 677, 2007