The City of Surrey is considering limiting the amount of time given to speakers at public hearings.
Under the city’s current rules, speakers have no restriction on how long they can talk. A report headed to council Monday night recommends changing that so that each speaker has a maximum of five minutes to make their point.
Surrey general manager of corporate services Rob Costanzo said the rule change is aimed at improving fairness and efficiency.
“The absence of that time limit at times has resulted in speakers straying off topic or taking up a disproportionate amount of time addressing a proposed bylaw,” he said.
But the idea isn’t sitting well with some community activists, who say the move is designed to muzzle critics.
“I think they’re responding to the fact they’ve had a number of unpopular and controversial decisions that have brought out a lot of people who want to be heard,” said Jodi Murphy.
Murphy said the initiative was just proposed last Thursday, and that the public hasn’t had a chance to weigh in on it.
She argued that the city should be looking for ways to increase public participation, not scale it back.
“I think they should consider ways they can expand the process to improve engagement from people instead of taking the reaction that they need to put time limits in and restrict how people can participate,” said Murphy.
If Surrey votes to adopt the speaker time limit, it won’t be alone. At least six councils across Metro have the five-minute rule in place.
Comments