Out of the public eye: Group looks at city council transparency

A citizens' group is flagging a transparency problem with municipal councils in New Brunswick.

More than half of Fredericton city council meetings are taking place behind closed doors, according to data from a little-known group calling itself Good Governance New Brunswick.

"There's a large period of time where the public and the media … are excluded from what government is doing," said Sandra Bender of Fredericton, identified as a researcher on the project and a founder of the group.

"And that means that we don't know what government is doing." 

Lack of transparency makes it difficult to people to hold representatives accountable and to participate in decisions and could make it easier for corruption to creep in, Bender said.  

"I wouldn't feel comfortable just sending my money over and saying, 'You go behind those doors and do what you think you need to do and then come back,'" she said.

"There's a high level of frustration and the trust is eroded. And that doesn't work well for either city council or for Frederictonians. So I think transparency is helpful for everybody."

The data is based on official city records of open and closed minutes for council and council-in-committee meetings from 2018 through 2023, provided by the city clerk, said Bender.

It doesn't include committee meetings held on Thursday at noon, noted Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers.

When those are considered the proportion of council business conducted in open session bumps up to well over two-thirds, she said.

Information is made available "at every opportunity" to the extent it is responsible, said Rogers.

"We stay every Monday after sometimes we will have had four or five hours of meetings. I stay afterwards to be in scrum to talk to journalists for anyone that would have any questions. I take calls, I take meetings, I go to schools and share information.

"We are trying to engage the public as much as possible in what we do with our civic governance. … If we can find more ways, we will do that. But we always have to be respectful of what is required to going to closed."

Many of the closed meetings are "council-in-committee" held twice a month prior to regular council meetings, Bender said in a release.