Unlimited talk for city councillors; five-minute rule for public

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/03/2025 (191 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The time limit for Winnipeggers to speak at city hall has been cut in half, but city council members won’t face the same restrictions.

On Thursday night, city council voted to reduce the maximum speaking time to five minutes from 10 minutes for public delegates at hearings, council sessions and committee meetings.

The change aims to shorten public meetings, which sometimes start at 9:30 a.m. and drag on late into the night.

However, a proposed limit on speaking time for elected officials was defeated.

Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) voted against the time limits for both council members and the public, stressing the need to ensure sufficient debate.

“(Is it) our big problem (that) people talk too long? No one’s ever said that to me at the door… (The priority) is (not that) we need to shave off a few minutes from our meetings,” said Mayes.

The decisions came at the end of Thursday’s city council meeting, which ran from 9:30 a.m. until around 11:15 p.m.

Mayes noted public presentations at that meeting finished at noon, so he doesn’t expect limiting public feedback will save much time.

“Part of this whole governance review (that led to the change)… was to make council more accessible and involve the public more in decision making. How the hell then do you justify cutting the public’s time in half?” he said.

Meanwhile, Coun. Evan Duncan raised a motion to limit the speaking time for council members to 10 minutes when they move a motion, and five minutes otherwise, at council meetings only. That motion was defeated.

Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) fears the lengths of the public meetings turns people off from watching them.

“I want to get Winnipeggers involved and I don’t know a lot of people who have 12 hours in their day to sacrifice to listen to story time,” he said.

At times, Duncan said some of his colleagues have wasted time talking about things that aren’t even related to the topic at hand.

“More listening from council (members), less talking about what they did 20 years ago would be very helpful,” he said.

Coun. Janice Lukes voted in favour of speaking time limits for council members and the public.

“With the use of Zoom… we have more people than ever participating in democracy and that is fantastic. And, I think, by allowing people five minutes, we (will be) able to hear more people,” said Lukes (Waverley West).

She believes the city would benefit from shorter public meetings.

“I don’t think it’s good to go to 11:30 at night to try and make big decisions,” said Lukes.

Council also decided to record when council members arrive late to council and committee meetings or leave before they end.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga