The Mayor for Ritchot welcomes legislation aimed at strengthening codes of conduct for municipal councils.

Chris Ewen is responding to legislation that has been introduced by the provincial government. One of the changes would see members of council undergo mandatory respectful conduct training within six months of being elected or re-elected. Ewen says that only makes sense.

(Ritchot Mayor Chris Ewen)"I think that everyone in a position of leadership should take some kind of professionalism or accountability course," notes Ewen. "I think as it builds and there's more concrete work set, you are going to see a lot of improvements for the code of conduct for councils throughout the municipalities and cities in Manitoba."

But, the Ritchot Mayor says there is not a lot of concrete detail in this announcement and questions whether the information was released a little premature.

Back in 2017, Ritchot Mayor Jackie Hunt resigned from that position as the result of name calling and belligerent behaviour. Councillors Jeannot Robert and Ron Mamchuk then showed their support to Hunt by also resigning, which led to council being dissolved. A by-election was then held in July of 2017, which saw Chris Ewen elected Mayor. Today, council for the RM of Ritchot is almost entirely different from the one that served under Jackie Hunt.

"We have such a good council now, we get along so well, we do team building exercises all the time," says Ewen. "I think the key is to be open about what happened and learn from the mistakes of the past and continue to grow stronger as we currently are."

Meanwhile, the bill being discussed by the province would also prescribe the minimum content of the council code of conduct, which would standardize the code across municipalities, ensuring that all council members must adhere to the same minimum set of ethical standards and procedures for implementing their code. Additionally, municipal council codes of conduct would be required to be established by bylaw, which would strengthen the provisions of the code and enhance accountability and transparency.

This bill would also enable the minister of municipal relations to make regulations that would further enhance the contents of the code, such as:

- defining the minimum standard and values that all council members must adhere to;

- establishing the minimum process for councils to receive, review and evaluate complaints;

- expanding the sanctions and remedial measures available to council for a breach of the codes so that new sanctions and remedial measures may include suspension of the member for a period of up to 90 days, mandatory training, letter of apology; and

- establishing an appeal process.