Peterborough city councillor calls out colleagues for unparliamentary language as city discusses code of conduct

Peterborough city councillor Henry Clarke has sat on council for seven terms and welcomes the adoption of a code of conduct for Peterborough council.

He even called out his colleagues around the table for the occasional language he’s hearing that he calls unacceptable.

“I’m particularly glad to hear it because quite frankly, folks, our language lately has been getting very unacceptable around this table,” Clarke said during Monday night’s general committee meeting at city hall.

“It lays out in black and white what we do and what don’t do,” he said. “It then gives us a mechanism to deal with it, to talk about it and to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”

Back in 2016, city council first looked at instituting a code of conduct for its elected officials and board members. Ashburnham councillor Gary Baldwin made the motion asking for a staff report on the matter.

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The motion was lost at that time, as council voted 8-3 against a code of conduct. But council now has no choice, as the municipal act has mandated all councils adopt a code of conduct and appoint at least one integrity commissioner by March 19.

“Codes of conduct are in the workplace, they are in every school in the province of Ontario,” said Baldwin. “People who work at city hall have a code of conduct and so I couldn’t imagine why councillors wouldn’t have a code of conduct.”

Council gave preliminary approval for the appointment of two integrity commissioners for a one-year term, and $10,000 has already been budgeted this year to pay for the outside counsel, with average rates for their services ranging from $275 to $400 an hour.

The two integrity commissioners who staff have recommend for appointment are Peterborough lawyer John Ewart and Toronto attorney Guy Giorno, who specializes in anti-bribery and corruption law.

The staff report suggests the two integrity commissioners will act independently and are responsible for performing certain functions on behalf of the municipality, like offer advice and education, while also performing necessary investigations.

Final approval is expected at next week’s city council meeting.