TORONTO - Most people would probably have zero interest in what's happening at a typical municipal meeting, but Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin said Wednesday citizens should be furious that so much information is being hidden from their eyes.
Marin admits his latest crusade lacks sex appeal and widespread public interest, but he insists it's tremendously important, and says people should be outraged that municipalities are making important decisions behind closed doors with no accountability.
"Can you imagine for a moment if the House of Commons would decide, `Let's close the door and have a closed session,' or if Queen's Park would ban the media from attending question period, the amount of public outcry that would happen?'' Marin said at a panel discussion about openness and transparency in government.
"Yet closed meetings in municipalities are not the rarest of exceptions.''
Although the provincial government has amended the Municipal Act to address complaints about closed-door meetings, Marin said those changes may accomplish nothing.
As of Jan. 1, municipalities will be forced to co-operate with an investigation if citizens complain about closed-door meetings that unreasonably withhold information from the public.
If a municipality doesn't appoint an investigator to conduct the review, Marin's office can do so.
But Marin said the legislation allows municipal employees to act as investigators, meaning there will be no guarantee of independence or impartiality in any review.
Marin said any claim that the level of secrecy has been lessened is just another example of what he calls government "puffery,'' or trumped-up claims that have little basis in reality.
"If I was a dreamer, I'd tell you we're about to get into a new era of the right to know in municipalities as of Jan. 1, because certainly it's been touted (that way),'' Marin said.
"(But) what the government has done is perpetuated the status quo and given it a gloss of credibility.''
Marin said he doesn't want oversight of municipalities to be part of his mandate, but he will pay attention to how many private meetings are being held and the results of any subsequent investigations. He intends to post his findings online so citizens can see if their municipality appears to be overly secretive.
Also appearing at the panel discussion were Ontario's information and privacy commissioner and auditor general, who backed Marin in suggesting that Ontario's government could do a lot more to be open with the public.
Auditor General Jim McCarter said the government has increasingly used the Internet to publicly disclose more and more data about its operations, but there's concern the information could be overly "managed.''
"If we look good, we're going to publish it. Otherwise, we're not,'' McCarter said of how the government could be deciding what to disclose.
