Thread by @bkives

Longtime city hall nerd here.

Brief thread on tomorrow’s special meeting of #wpgpoli council …

There are two actionable components to the motion.

The first: “Be it resolved that the City of Winnipeg Council expects immediate compliance with all applicable laws; including those related to traffic and noise bylaws.”

Under normal circumstances, this is what would be known informally as a symbolic motion.

Council often passes resolutions about things its members consider a public good - say, the worldwide peace efforts - without expecting the motion to have an effect …

But in this instance, the motion refers to a very real event in the city.

So the symbolism is odd. This component of the motion does not actually call for anything; it simply affirms that city council expects compliance with existing rules.

As others have noted, council need not pass a motion to expect compliance with a rule or regulation.

Council also expects homeowners to pay property taxes, industrial users of water to avoid releasing harmfu effluent and all manner of other things … without passing resolutions

In sum, this component of the motion appears to have little substance.

The second component is a resolution for “the City of Winnipeg Council calls on the provincial government and the Winnipeg Police Service to consider doing all things reasonably necessary to implement the intent of the foregoing.”

This appears to be more bureaucratese than legalese: council wishes to formally ask the police and province to enforce traffic and noise bylaws.

This is not a legal request. Asking an entity to consider something is informal by nature.

This component of the motion doesn’t even advocate a course of action.

It asks for consideration.

The suggestion here, intentional or otherwise, is the police and the province have not considered enforcement.

That’s a jab. A very Canadian and very mild jab, but still a jab.

Leaving aside the droll humour, the motion is curious.

For starters, the mayor doesn’t require council approval to ask the premier or justice minister to do anything.

He certainly doesn’t need it to ask either to simply consider something.

A phone call would do.

But that’s not the point. There’s a desire to present a united front here, the support of Coun. Santos notwithstanding.

In practical terms, council will debate a motion to appear to be united in a request to ask the province to consider something.

The similar request of the police involves more nuance.

Council ultimately approves the police budget but does not direct the police.

Even the police board does not direct the police; its powers are limited.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ma…

Here, the motion stands as an effort to implore the police to do more than they are doing.

Here, “consider” is a careful word. The elected officials simply can not order police to do anything.

As others have pointed out, there are reasons why elected officials at the municipal level do not have the power to direct police actions.

They already have *influence.* But that’s not the same as direct control.

Altogether, this is why I describe tomorrow’s debate as symbolic.

Regardless of your perspective on the protest, adjust your expectations accordingly.

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