Midland council meetings can be lengthy, and its councillors chatty.
A recent report to plan for the upcoming 2026 budget cycle (held in December 2025) proposed an alternative option for efficiency purposes: to decrease the three-day deliberations down to two days.
For many on council, the upcoming budget will be their fourth session spent managing town finances; it will be the second budget for Coun. Jaz Patel and Eric 'Howie' Major who were inaugurated in 2024.
As reference, during the budget discussions in December 2024, the first day ran from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.; the second day was 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.
On that third day, council began at 9 a.m. However, Coun. Sheldon East fell ill at 7:20 p.m. and promptly left the meeting for the hospital under the care of Fire Chief Richard Renaud; council quickly wrapped up the final portion of deliberations at 8:30 p.m. that night.
While Patel showed trust in the finance staff recommendation to reduce the budget days, Major expressed concerns at the proposal.
“After I went through the 380 pages, made notes and everything else,” said Major, “bringing it down to two days, I’m not with that at all.”
While no one on council wanted to point out the shortcomings of others, some acknowledged their own unintentional hindrances.
“We can speed it up by not repeating things that shouldn't be repeated,” said Coun. Bill Meridis. “I’m guilty of talking a lot; I’ll improve if we go down to two days.”
East added that Midland council had a tendency during normal meetings to pull a report that would otherwise be approved simply to spark discussion, resulting in an extension of the meeting as the matter is addressed.
“Maybe my health is a part of it, but I found three days was very unhealthy. To try to jam it into two days, I’m all for it; but I think everybody around this council table has to really be (in) approval of our mayor running the budgets really strict,” said East. “Truthfully, a lot of our normal meetings run on way too late.”
Replied Mayor Bill Gordon: “Even though the rule says two (comments), I’m loathe to enforce that rule because I think everybody just seems to get it.”
The report recommendation was to move the agencies, boards and commissions section of the budget process to late November, so a two-day deliberation of the 2026 draft budget could be set near mid-December.
An amendment was proposed that an option to extend the budget to a third day, if requested by council, was added to the motion which was passed by the committee of the whole.
Following the meeting, Gordon spoke with MidlandToday about the lengthy council meetings and strict adherence to managing them. Gordon admitted he was “lax” in allowing conversation to extend past a two-comment exchange.
“The capital thing should only take a few hours,” said Gordon, noting that most items were scheduled as part of the 10-year plan, and the changes to the tax rate were primarily found in the operating budget side, service-level changes, and new requests.
“It’s political theatre that winds up the time,” Gordon added. “I operate with quite a bit of leniency there because I like to have the dialogue. Let’s hash it all out; not everybody’s good at thinking on their feet. Two times may not work.”
The 2026 budget cycle planning report is available in the council agenda on the town of Midland website.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.