Moncton City Council voted 7 – 3 to put in place a new code of conduct, in response to new requirements in the Local Governance Act.
General Manager of Legal and Legislative Services Nick Robichaud says under this new code of conduct, an investigation, likely by an independent third party would take place into allegations of misconduct.
“If the complaint is founded, then the new code would have a list of potential sanctions in there,” says Robichaud. “So you’re talking about public reprimand, apology, could be removed from a committee, could be a suspension of a salary for a certain amount of time.”
Robichaud was asked if a majority vote was the best choice.
“We did look across the country, and the concept of needing more than a simple majority vote is not something that I’ve seen in other codes of conduct, so we just kinda followed what the best practice was across the country,” says Robichaud. “We just determined it should be a simple majority vote just like any other, or most other decisions of Council.”
Councillors Shawn Crossman, Paul Pellerin, and Bryan Butler voted against the new Code of Conduct, while all others voted in favour, with one Ward 3 seat empty after Moncton Centre MLA Rob McKee won a provincial seat in the September election.
