Prince Edward County Council is supporting a push to put real consequences in place for elected officials who harass or abuse others in the workplace.
During Tuesday’s council session, a presentation was made by Julie Johnson, from The Women of Ontario say No about workplace harassment and violence by elected officials.
During her presentation she talked about Bill 5, which would amend the municipal act to both require councillors to comply with the workplace harassment and violence policies of the municipality they represent, and allow municipalities to direct the integrity commissioner to ask the court to vacate a councillor’s seat if they do not follow those policies. A councillor whose seat is vacated like this would not be allowed to seek reelection in the next regular election.
Currently, the strongest punishment available for elected municipal councillors who are found to have committed workplace violence or harassment is to suspend their pay for 90 days. There is no mechanism to remove them from office.
Council was supportive of the initiative after the presentation. Councillor Phil St-Jean said that it is time to change how misconduct by councillors is handled.
“I would hope that all 444 municipalities in Ontario get behind this and get our province to change the rules,” said Councillor St-Jean. “This this is a terrible crime, and it is certainly an egregious error in how we deal with that at our level.”
Council decided to write a letter of support regarding Bill 5 and send it to MPP Todd Smith, along with Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs MPP Steve Clark.
