By Jeffrey Carter

If we are to have honest governance in Canada it must necessarily begin at the municipal level. If we cannot manage to positively influence municipally-elected officials, how can we impact affairs within the province, nation, or even dream of influencing the world beyond?
Municipal governance matters. It’s our own backyard.
As a young journalist, I covered municipal councils, school boards and even indigenous affairs in several jurisdictions in Alberta and Ontario. I remember in one small town in Northern Alberta, a town councilor by the name of Dido who would drone on and on about some inconsequential point until being cajoled to cease his rambling, on one occasion with words I will not repeat.
At what was then commonly known as the Four Bands just south of Wetaskiwin, Alberta, a troop of reporters descended upon the community to cover a controversy of some kind – I never did learn what the fuss was about – and were greeted by some of the locals, one of whom seemed intent upon taking a notebook away from another young reporter, prompting me to grin, announce my intention to leave their affairs in their obvious capable hands, and walk away.
In Wetaskiwin itself, I covered the school board, the county, and city meetings. The city seemed to run admirably well while the county politicians appeared secretive, leaving council chambers to make decisions of any controversy matter.
For the most part, however, both in Alberta and back in Ontario, it seemed the world of municipal governance was reasonably well managed, operating in a transparent manner for the most part.
In the last few years, unfortunately, a new trend has emerged. Elected officials continue to be elected but at times they seem more concerned with the interests of developers as opposed to the communities they are theoretically intended to represent.
The location of the battery plant at St. Thomas is one example, a project resulting in several hundred acres of prime farmland being lost. Another is the industrial development proposed in Wilmot Township in the Region of Waterloo. Landowners are being told they face expropriation of their farming properties  even though the reason why remains unclear.
Closer to home, uncomfortably close, less than a mile away from Dresden in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, is the site for the proposed York 1 recycling center and 80-foot-tall landfill. Thanks to the diligence of local journalism, it was revealed that members of Chatham-Kent’s administration and its elected officials, including the mayor, had knowledge of the project well in advance. Perhaps as early as 2019. Yet when the company officially announced its intentions earlier this year, they insisted that they, like the community, had been blindsided.
Chatham-Kent’s Code of Conduct for its elected officials includes the following general principles: “Members of Council shall uphold a high standard of ethical behaviour to ensure that their decision-making is impartial, transparent and free from undue influence; and Members shall refrain from engaging in conduct that would bring the Municipality or Council into disrepute or compromise the integrity of the Municipality or Council.”
Transparency, it seems, is more of an aspirational goal than a reality in municipal governance in Ontario these days.
The next set of municipal elections are now less than two years away. I am hoping more of those eligible to vote will do so and, more importantly, take the time to actually consider who they will be voting for.
Municipal governance matters. ◊