Council for the Rural Municipality of Ritchot has been challenged on its Procedural Bylaw.

Council was looking to give 2nd and 3rd readings to the bylaw when a resident raised concerns at its last meeting. Robert Doiron appeared before council, stating he was speaking in opposition to the bylaw.

Doiron raised several concerns with council. He suggested the bylaw makes it sound as though a meeting can be held electronically, where each councillor could be in a separate location.

Mayor Chris Ewen refers to this as a misunderstanding. Though there is the capability for a councillor to take part in a meeting electronically, there must still be a quorum of council in a physical location.

"We are looking to continue having physical meetings," he says. "But just the opportunity to include electronic FaceTime, Skype or any kind of visual monitoring with a councillor that's unable to attend a meeting."

Doiron also disagrees with the fact the municipality does not have recorded votes. And he questions why the municipality makes a greater effort to notify residents of their garbage day than it does to let residents know which councillor voted which way.

Ewen says he would prefer they not have recorded votes.

"When we are voting for something in favour of against, we move forward as a whole and I believe that the separation and the recording of each councillor's decision is really unnecessary," explains Ewen.

One final concern raised by Doiron was in response to the bylaw which allows council to prevent people from speaking at a public hearing if their concerns are redundant.

"We would like to refrain from hearing the same debate or the same discussion over and over," notes Ewen.

He says in an effort to run an efficient meeting, if the same concern comes up over and over at a public hearing, council may choose to hear from residents who only bring up a new thought.

Council has agreed to hold off for now on approving changes to its Procedural Bylaw.