In what promises to be the first of its kind in Canada, new members of council may be officially asked to sign a code of conduct requiring them to declare potential conflicts of interest in writing.

At their weekly meeting Monday, members of council discussed a new councillor code of conduct, a code which would clearly define what is expected of a council member and would be agreed to by elected officials upon taking office.

The code, according to a draft presented to council Monday night, would also include a conflict of interest section where council members would be expected to list in writing personal matters which may affect their ability to make decisions in the public interest.

'... (T)he councillors' code of conduct is a means of promoting understanding amongst councillors regarding the expectations of conduct when representing the council and in their dealings with the community, municipal staff and one another,' city documents state.

'The code was developed from research on similar codes found in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand where all municipalities are required by legislation to have one. No similar codes were found to exist in Canada.'

Presenting the initiative to council, city manager Dennis Shewfelt said this was the first initiative of its kind in Canada.

Shewfelt said the code doesn't call on council to change what they are already doing, it just sets council's actions out in a written policy, which will be followed by future members of council.

In an interview this morning, Mayor Ernie Bourassa said the code was developed by city administration at the request of council to set the direction of future councils to ensure newly elected officials where aware of their responsibilities and had the direction to carry them out.

'Basically, we wanted to codify what's being done over the past few years,' Bourassa said.

'We had our staff look at what they were doing in places like Australia and New Zealand and change it to suit our needs here,' the mayor said.

Coun. Doug Graham said this morning that council members came up with the idea of a code because in past some councillors acted inappropriately by doing things such as skipping meetings.

'A few years ago, some members of council missed a number of meetings in a row. Rather than saying something to them, we felt codifying councillor expectations was a better way to go,' he said.

He said council members missing meetings was still a bit of a concern.

Councillors who miss meetings, he added, still get paid for them

'It isn't really any different than what we are already doing,' he said.

'This just sets it out in stone ... it's a policy document.'

Duties of council which will be codified, according to the draft of the councillors' code of conduct, include:

-relationships with city staff;

• communications with the public;

• conduct at council meetings;

• written declarations of conflicts of interests.

At Monday's meeting, Coun. Dave Stockdale said he had concerns with listing conflicts of interest because he felt it may give the public more information about a council members personal affairs than they are entitled to.

'Are we going to have to fill out a form?' Stockdale asked. 'We've never done that before.

'We may not want people to know that we have an interest in (something),' he said.

'I'm just concerned about clearly stating that.'

According to section 7.1.2 of the draft code: 'If (a) councillor considers that they have, or might reasonably be perceived to have, an interest in a matter before council or a committee of council, they will submit a statement of disclosure of interest from prior to to the start of the meeting, clearly stating the nature of their interest.'

Bourassa said this morning that council members would not have to disclose financial details of their personal affairs and that writing down their interest would be done in the interest of clarity.

Council members, he added, were already expected to declare their conflicts in a verbal manner.