Rights of the General Public
All council meetings are open to the public and no person shall be excluded except for improper conduct. This includes regularly scheduled meetings and any special meetings. All council decisions must be made during an open meeting and recorded in the meeting minutes. At every regular meeting, council approves the minutes of any previous regular or special meeting.
A council may close all or part of their meetings to the public (called "in camera") to discuss sensitive items such as those within Part III of The Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act or matters concerning long-range or strategic planning. A council cannot make any decisions during an in camera meeting. In order to pass any motions or resolutions, Council must close the in camera meeting and return to an open meeting.
The approved minutes may be read or inspected by any person at any time during regular business hours. Any person may obtain a copy of the approved minutes for a fee set by council that shall not exceed the reasonable cost incurred by the municipality to produce the copies.
For more details, see:
- Sections 117 – 120 of The Municipalities Act
- Sections 89 – 93 of The Cities Act