Springfield residents frustrated with lack of local government transparency
Inconsistent websites, unreachable council members and delegation restrictions make information hard to access in municipal government
Residents in the Rural Municipality of Springfield are frustrated by the lack of transparency from their local government and inconsistency between information availability in other RMs in Manitoba.
Residents are facing barriers accessing information and taking part in delegations in Springfield. The inconsistency between RM websites across the Southeast make it difficult for citizens to stay up-to-date with what goes on at their local council hearings.
Often, RMs don’t publish transcriptions, or video and audio recordings from council meetings, making it difficult to follow developments in policy unless residents attend in person or through video call.
Janet Nylen, a resident of Oakbank said her delegation requests about a proposed water treatment plant were ignored or pushed back to a later date by Mayor Patrick Therrien and CAO Colleen Draper.
“They don’t hear you, they don’t answer you. It’s the degree of control that frustrates me,” Nylen, a retired municipal administrator said. “If they don’t want to see you, they’re now controlling delegations and you have to send ahead of time what you’re going to be saying.”
Nylen said from her experience working with various RMs, a lack of transparency often comes from inexperienced council members and a lack of funding.
Transparency is also influenced by how easily councillors, head administrators and the mayor or reeve of an RM can be contacted. At the time of publication, both the mayor and CAO of Springfield could not be reached for comment despite multiple phone calls over two days.
“In the rural areas, they can’t afford the high-tech stuff, but they allow you to come into council meetings and sit down and talk with them if you have an issue,” Nylen said. “They do offer some stuff on the Internet, but I don’t... rely on it being complete. It’s kind of what they want to show you.”
Larger information issues raised in Springfield
Nylen is concerned about the lack of public consultation on bigger issues going on within Springfield, including the proposed silica sand mining project from the Alberta-based company, Sio Silica.
The potential development in Vivian has caused rising tension between opponents and members of council who continue to remain neutral on the issue.
It’s hard to stop caring about municipal issues when it’s your experience and “in your blood” Nylen said. But for residents with different backgrounds than her, she says it’s hard for them to understand.
“My friends say I’m a nutcase. They tell me, ‘Go and get a life, go retire and be happy.’ But who else knows this?” Nylen said. “My immediate friends and neighbours don’t care so we have an apathy in local government.”
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Tangi Bell feels it is unfair select members of the public are tasked with holding council accountable.
Bell is the organizer of a group opposed to the Sio Silica mining operation called Our Line in the Sand. She lives North of Anola, a few kilometres away from the potential mining site.
Bell has followed multiple similar issues in Springfield and says all along it’s been hard to find information. She feels that if she stops keeping up with what’s going on in municipal government, no one else will.
“If I fold and don’t do anything, I can’t live with myself,” Bell said. “But we shouldn’t be doing this.”
Bell wants to see RMs make their websites more user-friendly so people are more aware of what goes on in council.
Local government is more important than many people think, she said.
“It’s everything. It’s policy that you have to abide by for the rest of your life,” Bell said. “Once that becomes policy, that’s it. You’re going to have a very hard time trying to get that back.”
Change coming to some RM websites in near future
Other municipalities are looking to update their websites to help the public find information more easily. Many of these sites have not been updated in more than a decade because of the cost.
RM of Ste. Anne CAO Mike McLennan and RM of Brokenhead CAO Sheila Mowat said in separate interviews, they are in the process of updating their websites to make them more accessible to the public. Mowat estimated the updates would cost $20,000.
“We’ve found that some of the information isn’t easy to find or is not intuitive as to where it would be,” McLennan said. “If there’s the passing of a new bylaw, we want to make sure that information is readily available for folks to reference. It’s not something we want to bury.”
RM of Hanover CAO Luc Lahaie said the RM spent just under $10,000 to make a brand-new web page that’s “dramatically improved.” He added that more recently, the RM has turned to social media platforms like Facebook to post urgent messages like road closures.
All three CAOs and RM of Taché Mayor Armand Poirier stressed the importance of transparency and openness between councils and the public they serve.