Wasaga Beach councillors will debate the merits of a municipal whistleblower policy in March.
At council’s Jan. 13 co-ordinated committee meeting, councillors accepted a recommendation directing staff to explore a policy that would protect employees if they came forward in good faith to report an allegation of mismanagement, corruption or illegality.
The report will come back to committee in two months.
The recommendation was presented by Coun. Joe Belanger.
While support was unanimous, some councillors expressed concern about the specific reference to Collingwood in the recommendation, and that town’s decision to implement a policy in the wake of a judicial inquiry that looked at the sale of Collingwood’s electricity utility, and the use of the funds to purchase two recreational facilities.
While a whistleblower policy was not one of Associate Chief Justice Frank Marrocco’s recommendations that stemmed from the inquiry he oversaw, Collingwood’s municipal staff proposed the policy to council last fall.
In their report to council, Collingwood’s chief administrative officer Sonya Skinner and director of legislative services Sara Almas stated that had the town had a whistleblower policy in place at the time of the events examined by the inquiry, “the unfortunate events may have been mitigated.”
Wasaga Beach councillors stated that the reference to Collingwood...
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