I was shocked to read Saanich council's response to open government is to make it less accessible and more intimidating to residents.
Moving town hall meetings to the council chambers is an attempt to stifle opinions, control who gets access, and create an atmosphere of subjugation and subordination for members of the public.
Our overly sensitive council members in Saanich might want to consider another career if they find dealing with the public's anger over their misguided, ill-thought-out agenda offensive to their sensibilities. Unfortunately, that’s what you get when you have a mayor and the majority of councillors who spent their working life in the bureaucracy telling people what to do, as opposed to business people who spend their working life dealing with and diffusing adversarial situations and trying to come to compromises.
We need term limits, and we need our councillors to be more forthright on what their agendas are when they’re running for council. Every decision they make has a domino effect.
Doug Coulson
Saanich
