In-person Saskatoon city council meetings, hearings to resume by Sept. 1

After more than a year of online council meetings, hearings and appointments, Saskatoon city hall is expected to re-open to the public by Sept. 1.

At Monday’s Governance and Priorities Committee meeting, councillors were given an update on the back-to-work plan by city clerk Adam Tittemore.

Since March 2020, all council meetings, hearings and business matters have been held online; all staff that were able to work from home, did so.

But Tittemore said now that the provincial State of Emergency is over and there aren’t any public health restrictions on gatherings or masking, it’s nearly time to resume in-person meetings and appointments.

“There are a number of caveats to that, pending facility readiness … we have a graduated return schedule that’s been facilitated to make sure the return is orderly and we don’t have any operations affected,” said Tittemore. “We have GMs and directors that have started to return already, and then we’ll have the general return set up in tiers in between now and September the first,” he explained.

Council meetings will continue to be live-streamed online. However, if staff, councillors or someone scheduled to make a presentation can’t come to a meeting, they’ll still be able to take part remotely.

There’s also a pilot project taking place which includes some staff permanently working from home.

Not every department will bring staff back either. That includes the building and permits department which will stay online for the rest of the year. After that, Community Services GM Lynne LaCroix says there will be a new process to get building permits online.

“Once we’ve launched the new system, we will have staff available again by appointment for building permits to come to city hall in person to do that where they feel they haven’t had the opportunity to do it online,” she said. “The in-person by appointment (process) will then allow us to provide a higher level of customer service.”

Ward 5 Councillor Randy Donauer said it was important that the public once again be allowed to attend council meetings, and particularly, to take part in public hearings. Where people have a right to address council, he said it was vital for them to be able to do so.

“People’s ability to be heard has been compromised a little bit because when you come to a hearing physically, the chair will call out and say, ‘Does anybody want to speak to this matter?’ And so you do not have to register in advance, and you do not have to come to the meeting on the agenda, you can just come and sit and listen to the hearings and speak to any one of them.”

During the virtual council meetings, there was no ability for members of the public to address councillors in that manner, unless they had previously been scheduled or registered as a speaker.

If there are any controversial public agenda hearings in August, the administration said it will move them forward to September to allow for members of the public to take part.

According to Tittemore, safety protocols will remain in place including physical barriers and increased cleaning schedules. Employees returning to city hall will also be required to fill out “Fit For Duty” forms each day before they get to work.

As the COVID-19 situation evolves, the City will be prepared to adjust its practices as required.