Councillor Bruce Phinney speaks against new code of conduct

Tantramar Town Council has adopted a new Code of Conduct bylaw that would allow for the suspension of any member of council for up to 90 days without pay.

Councillor Bruce Phinney, who has been sanctioned three times under previous codes of conduct, was the only member to speak and vote against the new bylaw on third and final reading. (Councillor Barry Hicks also voted against the new bylaw on second reading.)

Phinney referred to critical comments from Mount Allison Politics Professor Geoff Martin who told Warktimes in February that the new code could violate Charter of Rights guarantees of free speech and freedom of association.

Phinney also said he had spoken to two human resources experts who suggested members of council should not be allowed to sit in judgment on each other.

“In some cases the council may say, ‘I don’t like that councillor and I don’t like what they’re doing, so we’re going to find a way to put them in their place,” Phinney added.

Mayor Andrew Black suggested the town’s lawyers did not see any conflict with the Charter of Rights and that members of council are always free to express differences of opinion.

“That’s why we’re here. That’s what we should be doing,” he added.

If everybody just believed the same thing, then we would just be rubber stamping everything all the time,” Black continued.

Mayor Andrew Black

“But what’s not okay is if it gets potentially disrespectful or whatever, puts the municipality at a potential and serious risk,” the mayor said referring to the possibility of costly lawsuits that could arise if members of council made irresponsible or disparaging comments about each other, town staff or members of the public.

Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, but spoke against the 90-day suspension at previous meetings on the grounds that it could deprive her ward of representation on council.

Wiggins-Colwell herself was found guilty of violating a previous code of conduct when she took personal charge of restoring Dorchester’s giant shorebird statue in time for the 2023 Sandpiper Festival and the return of the migrating birds to the Bay of Fundy in August.

In 2022, Councillor Phinney lost two months pay and his prescription drug coverage for that period after he suggested Sackville’s hiring practices were unfair because “family members are being hired.”

He was also sanctioned for saying Mount Allison students from outside the area should vote where they came from instead of casting their ballots here.

To read my coverage, click here.