A vote by council next week will determine whether the public will continue to have access to information packages, which come forward at council’s weekly meeting, days ahead of the session, or if it will be just a few hours instead.

Under the proposed new procedures bylaw, council packages (which contain information in advance of council’s weekly meeting) would become publicly available on the morning of the scheduled evening meeting, rather than the Friday preceding the meeting.

While updates to the territory’s Municipal Act are also reflected in the proposed bylaw, the proposed timing change on the public release of council packages has raised concerns among some council members, as well as delegates who made presentations at a council meeting last month.

After two presentations by residents arguing the change would restrict public comment by giving people less time to prepare for meetings where council may be discussing or voting on something of concern, council voted 4-3 last month to delay third reading of the bylaw.

Back for consideration last night, Coun. Samson Hartland was the first to speak up noting his plans to bring forward an amendment to the proposed bylaw next week that ensure council packages continue to be made public on Friday afternoons prior to the usual Monday (or Tuesday in cases where Monday is a holiday) council meeting.

Hartland has expressed his support for the Friday release time, arguing the need for the city to be as transparent as possible and to give residents time to prepare presentations for council meetings.

It didn’t take long for councillors Jocelyn Curteanu and Betty Irwin to voice their support, both noting they were part of the council to move the availability to Friday in 2013.

Curteanu said she doesn’t see a “compelling reason” to move it back to Monday, noting that if residents contact her over the weekend about a concern before she’s read about it in the package, she simply explains that she hasn’t read about it yet and will get back to them on it after she’s looked at it, something Irwin also highlighted.

At an earlier meeting, Coun. Rob Fendrick had argued in favour of the Monday package release, stating he likes to have the weekend to go over the council package and information before getting calls from the public to answer questions or give opinions on an issue.

Weekend phone calls are not an intrusion for her, Irwin emphasized last night, noting she appreciates having concerns and the smaller details on issues brought to her attention.

Irwin also stated her thoughts that moving to a Monday release would be “taking a big step backwards” in providing information to the public.

Mayor Dan Curtis, however, continued to argue, as he has during previous discussions, that there are already many public processes built into council decisions, and there is ample time for public feedback on any issue before a final decision is made, without the need for council packages to be released on Fridays. He also argued the Monday release provides administration with more time to make changes to the agenda, if needed.

Meanwhile, Coun. Dan Boyd said that while the public has sufficient notice and time to speak out on most issues, there are times where there may not be that same amount of time on a matter.

Third reading of the bylaw will come forward next week with Hartland expected to bring forward his amendment before the final vote.