Flags and proclamations were revisited in Tiny Township, with Coun. Steffen Walma’s attendance swaying from a previous tied and defeated decision.
Two items discussed at the back-to-back meetings of council were given approval with the full complement of council present.
The first order of business at the regular meeting of council involved Walma asking for a reconsideration and revote on a decision to deny a proclamation of October 1 through 7 as National Breastfeeding Week in Tiny, despite approval by other municipalities.
At the prior meeting of Tiny council, Walma’s absence resulted in a split decision, causing the request from the North Simcoe Breastfeeding Coalition was defeated.
In returning to the subject, Walma explained that a 2015 workshop by the coalition was one of the first organizational requests he had attended, which raised awareness to breastfeeding on a societal level as well as within his own family.
“I think supporting this kind of initiative is important to break that (stigma), and show as a government body that we support women's rights to do this,” said Walma.
Mayor Dave Evans asked if approving the proclamation after the week had passed would remain relevant, to which Walma replied it would be accommodated by the group.
Coun. Kelly Helowka admitted he knew little on the topic and asked if there was an education component to draw information from; Walma replied that the organization was part of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
Coun. Dave Brunelle reiterated a stance that he’d stated in the previous decision where he was against flag-raising of external organizations, and voted against the reconsideration while Helowka declared he would abstain: “I would like to attend a workshop and gather more information before I vote yes for this.”
The proclamation was approved however, and the regular meeting continued until adjournment where it was immediately followed by the committee of the whole meeting.
The second relevant topic involved a review on the township’s 2019 proclamation and flag-raising request policy.
“We’re not really identifying a criteria or an evaluation mechanism,” said Evans. “This is the Office of the Mayor and whoever may be mayor now or in the future – to give them the ability to yea or nay a request.”
His recommendation was to amend the policy with a suggestion to add evaluation and criteria on six points: submission of public interest and relevance; alignment with government values and policies; non-commercial status; civic or cultural significance; non-partisanship; and educational or awareness value. Examples included Terry Fox Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Supporting Evans were Deputy Mayor Sean Miskimins as well as Walma, who suggested adding that new proclamations be forwarded to council for consideration.
In opposition was Brunelle, stating removing flag-raising would be sufficient.
His argument cited the report’s words, the Provincial Policy Statement, and the Municipal Act, noting in the report that ‘political, religious, and commercial requests’ were excluded in ‘most policies’ ‘to maintain neutrality and inclusivity’.
“How can you base it on inclusivity when you’re excluding certain groups?” Brunelle asked.
Brunelle also claimed that within municipal services such as fire, public works and waste disposal, flag-raising wasn’t such a municipal service.
“Proclamations, I’m all in favour; but this is not one of our services to provide. That’s my point: why do we do this? I’m not quite sure,” Brunelle said.
Both Walma and Miskimins countered Brunelle’s assertion.
“If we talk about regulation, municipalities provide a lot of services that we aren’t required to under the province,” said Walma. “You don’t need a CAO. You don’t technically have to provide fire suppression services as a fire department; you only have to do fire prevention. These are all services that we go above and beyond for our residents because it’s something we feel is important for the community.”
As a peace offering, Evans offered to Brunelle that he would explore the definitions of flag-raising and proclamations when it came time to review requests, which allowed Brunelle to tangent to the actions of another municipality and state his confusion as to their terminologies on the matter.
“We need to start defining some of these words like ‘inclusivity’. ‘As a whole’ – does that mean a majority, 100 per cent of the community would be against that, or the majority?” asked Brunelle. “To have an actual flag ceremony; that’s not what I want, because it’s too ambiguous. How do we determine the ‘community as a whole’, like what they want?”
Siding with Brunelle was Helowka who stated opposition to flags other than the Canadian flag, Ontario flag, Simcoe flag, Tiny flag and Franco-Ontarian flag being flown on municipal poles.
At the committee of the whole meeting, the vote of 3-2 determined the majority approved the flag-raising policy recommendation to include Evans’ criteria selection as well as ability for an incoming council to review requests.
Notably, while meeting chair Helowka waited for a new motion to be put before him, he alluded to his age by addressing the Toronto Maple Leafs jersey he was wearing, sharing an anecdote from his youth of witnessing the hockey team winning the Stanley Cup for the last time, and predicting this year would be the return of the Cup.
The proclamation and flag-raising request policy review can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the township’s YouTube channel.
