ARICHAT - The newly-elected councillors for Richmond County took two steps towards restoring transparency to their council, during the two meetings held at the county's municipal chambers in Arichat this month.

This week's regular council meeting saw a unanimous vote to reinstate the 15-minute question period that had disappeared from public council meetings in Arichat under the previous council. The vote was based on a recommendation from council's Committee of the Whole, which took place on November 9. 

Back in 2016, then-Warden Brian Marchand tried opening up the question period to topics that weren’t on the agenda for a given meeting. However, this experiment only lasted a few months, and by late 2019, the question period had vanished completely.

Speaking to reporters following Monday’s regular council meeting, new Warden Amanda Mombourquette pointed out that council transparency had arisen as one of the top election campaign issues in all five Richmond districts, making the return of a question period a natural fit.

While she confirmed that only seven members of the public can attend a council meeting on any given night, due to COVID-19 social-distancing restrictions, Mombourquette added that there are also options to bring a question to the table by contacting councillors directly by phone, e-mail or in person.

The public question period may not always be only 15 minutes long – councillors also voted to extend that timeframe, if necessary, on a case-by-case basis.

The return of the question period brought praise from the only member of the public to address council on Monday night – a former Richmond County Warden himself, Louisdale’s Richie Cotton, who described last night’s decision by the newly-elected councillors as "fantastic."

While Warden Mombourquette joked that she was “intimidated” by a former warden being in attendance, she happily confirmed to Cotton that all future Question Periods will specifically stick to the agenda of a given council meeting.

In addition to this development, council has allowed Telile Community Television to record and broadcast the entirety of Richmond's regular meetings and Committee of the Whole sessions. The municipality is also in discussions with Telile to explore live-streaming options for these meetings.