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Mono council discusses improving accessibility to information for residents

January 23, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Improving public accessibility to information may bolster engagement in various issues.

That was a suggestion one concerned Mono resident broached to council when it met on Jan. 14.

The concerned resident asked if there’s a means for the public to access such letters that have been sent to the province. They also asked if there’s an open database by which citizens could become informed about specific issues.

Mayor John Creelman said many municipalities have an advocacy initiative that describes its concerns.

“At the beginning of each year they choose a number of issues they want to press the province on or press other agencies on,” he said. “Maybe we could create a spot on the webpage that has letters to the province and letters from the province. Eventually, some of them do get answered but not often enough.”

“It’s all there,” Councillor Melinda Davie said. “All the documents are there. The question is how does a person go in and actually find them.”

The title of the document is required, she said and asked if it would be possible to enable the public to access documents through a search using a keyword.

Fred Simpson, the town’s clerk, said any letters from council or a councillor are included in Schedule A of meeting agendas.

“What doesn’t get recorded as a standalone document is if council endorses a position (that) passes as a resolution,” Simpson said. “That’s recorded in the (meeting) minutes but often is not a standalone document.”

He said documents are archived in the town’s document management system that’s available online. But they’re categorized by council meeting date as opposed to subject.

“They are all fully searchable, though,” he said. “Each of those documents has metadata so if you search by a topic it will compile a list for that search. But what we’re not doing is taking that document and now storing in two or three locations on the website.”

Basically, such information is stored chronologically.

Simpson said staff has looked into various software platforms that would allow various means of compiling information.

“Our current software doesn’t allow that unless we were to store the same document multiple times in different folders,” he said.

Coun. Ralph Manktelow agreed accessing town information should be made easier for people.

“For all of us, it’s a challenge sometimes to find information and the more we can do to make it easier for people the better it is,” Manktelow said.

The resident said council would get more public engagement on specific issues through simpler access to information.

“I write a lot of letters and I can’t even find some of the letters I write on my own computer,” Creelman said.

Coun. Elaine Capes said it’s always possible for somebody to phone town staff and ask for information about specific issues.

“We obviously, I believe, would help a citizen find what they are looking for,” Capes said.


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