(Queen’s Park) – Simcoe North MPP Garfield Dunlop criticized the McGuinty government today for turning against elected municipal councillors and elected school board trustees by voting down Bill 165, the Elected Officials Immunity Act.

“It was our hope to get this bill into committee where elected municipal officials could provide input,” said Dunlop. “It’s a disappointing day for the Liberals’ so-called ‘democratic renewal’ when they publicly oppose equality in speaking privileges for their municipal and school board counterparts.”

Introduced by Oshawa MPP Jerry Ouellette, Bill 165 was intended to extend to municipal politicians certain rights and privileges that are currently granted to Members of Provincial Parliament.

If passed, the bill would have granted other elected officials the same privilege of speech found under Section 37 of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Act. This section states that, “A member of the Assembly is not liable to any civil action or prosecution, arrest, imprisonment or damages, by reason of any matter or thing the member brought by petition, bill, resolution, motion or otherwise, or said before the Assembly or a committee thereof.”

EXCERPT FROM GARFIELD DUNLOP’S SPEECH DURING SECOND READING DEBATE TODAY ON BILL 165:

“First of all, I want to say that I was pleased to see that the bill was circulated to municipalities across the province. I know that two of the larger municipalities in my riding, the Town of Midland and the City of Orillia, both supported this bill. I have a lot of confidence in the workings of those two municipal councils, and the staff that work for the towns of Midland and Penetanguishene. I also understand the member for Oshawa received support from the Township of Ramara on this private member’s bill as well. I’m not sure what other ones came in from my riding.

Mr. Speaker, as you probably are aware, a lot of us in this House have been members of municipal councils over the years. I myself had 18-and-a-half years in municipal council work, and I felt that as a municipal council member, I worked just as hard at doing my job as a councillor, a reeve and a deputy mayor, as I do representing the people as an MPP, if you look at the responsibilities we have.

There is a certain protection we have in this Assembly, and we get that protection during all the debate times, during Question Period. As you know and as the member brought forward, those same privileges are not extended to municipal council members, and a lot of people on school boards as well. I think they deserve that right.

For example, quite often, people who are on municipal councils – most of them are not full-time jobs. In a lot of cases, these people run businesses, they are teachers, and they belong to other professions. A lot of people join municipal councils as a result of their strong support for and love of their communities. They want to make their community, whether it’s a township, a city or a small village, a better place to live. I think in a lot of cases, because they don’t have the privileges that are extended to the 103 MPPs here, that may be a reason why people would not run for an elected position on some of the councils. That is hindering the process in a certain way. Just because of this aspect alone, we might be turning our back on a lot of very promising elected officials across this province who may like to run.”

Contacts:
Garfield Dunlop
(705) 327-4500 (cell)