City council meetings are supposed to be open to the public. That is the law in Alberta, but in Medicine Hat, an increasing amount of council business is happening behind closed doors.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Until September 2023, the city did not keep track of the length of the closed sessions. That is the only time period that is available for comparison.

2024

2,052 minutes in closed

3,241 minutes in open

39% of meeting time was behind closed doors.

2025

3,174 minutes in closed

4,351 minutes in open

42% of meeting time was behind closed doors

The trend is getting worse.

Jan 1 - Jun 30 2026

1,867 minutes in closed

1,612 minutes in open.

Nearly 54 % of meeting time was behind closed doors

For the first time since record-keeping started, council is spending more time in closed meetings than in open ones.

In 6 months, this council has spent almost as much time in closed sessions
as previous council did for the entire year of 2024.

Compare that to the first 6 months of 2024 and 2025

The previous council had reasons for some of that closed time. They were dealing with

the Council Code of Conduct Complaint
Ann Mitchell threatening Mayor Clark with a defamation lawsuit
the Kingsgate Report,
the sanctions against the mayor,
the judicial review,
the municipal inspection, and
the firing of the city manager.

Those were sensitive personnel and legal matters.

The new council has no such excuse.

Why Closed Sessions Should Follow Open Meetings

Legal and Procedural Best Practices

The Municipal Government Act (MGA) requires that a meeting be closed by a resolution passed in an open, public session. Conducting the open portion first ensures the public can observe and understand the justification for any closure.
Other municipalities' procedure bylaws often specify that closed sessions are held immediately preceding a regular meeting . While this is common practice, the spirit of the law is to ensure public business is conducted in public whenever possible.
The Ontario Ombudsman, a key authority on municipal transparency, emphasizes that exceptions to open meetings are "narrow" and that "when in doubt, open the meeting".

Findings of the Municipal Inspection

The independent inspection of the City of Medicine Hat concluded that the city was managed in an "irregular, improper, and improvident" manner and noted the governance function was "ineffective".
A key recommendation, G42, was to "consider eliminating the default closed session of Regular council meetings in favour of using closed session as and when required" . This explicitly advises against the automatic, default use of closed sessions.

The report did not say "stop having closed meetings."

It said closed meetings should be the exception, not the rule.

Practical and Common-Sense Reasons

Freshness and Focus: Starting with the open session ensures councillors are fresh and alert when dealing with public business and answering questions from citizens . Scheduling closed sessions first often means the public portion occurs when councillors are fatigued, which can impact the quality of public deliberation.
Accountability and Trust: Making closed meetings the exception rather than the rule helps rebuild public trust, which the inspection report identified as a major concern.
The Burden of Proof: When the closed session is first, the default becomes secrecy. When it comes after open, the council must consciously decide to exclude the public, forcing a justification for every closure.
A Lesson from Committee Meetings: The recent example of a councillor visibly struggling to stay awake during a Jun 4 committee meeting highlights that mental fatigue is a real issue. Scheduling the most demanding, public-facing work when councillors are most alert is simply better governance.

We cannot tell you how long the closed meeting on Jun 4 was as the published minutes are garbled. - Update - once the city was notified , they have since corrected the June 4 minutes. The closed meeting last for one hour.

*From a social media post earlier this year*

In short, best practices, the inspector's recommendations, and common sense all point to the same conclusion: discuss what you can in the open, and only then, if absolutely necessary, move behind closed doors.

Former Councillor Shila Sharps put it this way in a social media comment in response to a comment made by Councillor Hellman:

"The requirement isn't to go into Camera when it's minutia, and detailed and boring. The only reason you should be in camera is third-party reputational harm, etc. The exceptions are few."

The Public Remembers The 8-Minute Meeting of Mar 21 2024

On March 21, 2024, council held a special meeting to impose sanctions on Mayor Linnsie Clark. The open portion lasted eight minutes.

Council had already discussed everything behind closed doors.

They had reviewed the Kingsgate Report in private and debated the sanctions in private.

The public got eight minutes to watch the vote.

The public was outraged - no reasons were given, it was obvious that the seven council members had already decided what they were going to do behind closed doors, the open session was seen by many as an insult to their intelligence.

When faced with the backlash, council doubled down and refused to explain themselves.

At 7:30pm on April 1 2024 (not a typo), they issued a press release.

A judge later overturned most of the sanctions, calling them "disproportionate and unreasonable."

Old Habits Die Hard

In October 2025, the previous council voted to change the start time of council meetings. Open meetings would begin at 4 p.m. instead of 6:30 p.m., with closed sessions happening after the open portion. The change was made because the inspector recommended reducing the default use of closed sessions.

The new council reversed it at their very first operational meeting.

Here's how it happened

Councillor Phaff requested that the closed session be moved to before item 9.1, Council Member Appointment to Palliser Economic Partnership.

This was the Nov 17 2025 Agenda which was published before the meeting.

14.1.1 2025 Audit Service Plan (s.29 advice from officials)
14.1.2 Emergency Shelter Overview (s.19 business interests of a third party, s.30 economic and other interests of a public body)

This was on the Nov 17 2025 Minutes‍ published later

Items Discussed:

2025 Audit Service Plan [s.29, advice from officials] - received for information.
Emergency Shelter Overview [s.19 business interests of a third party, s.30 economic and other interests of a public body] - received for information.
Procedure Bylaw Amendments [s.29, advice from officials] – received for information.

So, after less than 30 minutes after the 4pm start time, immediately after they received a delegation from the Medicine Hat Women's Shelter Society, council voted to go into closed. They did not come back from their closed session until 6:30pm, their previous start time.

Instead of discussing the procedure bylaw amendments in public, it appears as if they created a reason to go into a closed session. They discussed the amendment behind closed doors and came back to open session to pass it unanimously.

There was no public discussion because the decision had already been made behind closed doors, the open portion was merely a formality, thus depriving the public the right to observe the decision making process.

Same Pattern, New Council

The same pattern has crept into committee meetings.

On July 16, 2026, the Energy, Land and Environment Committee was scheduled to meet for the first time in a month. The closed session was set for 9:30 a.m. and the open session was set for 10:30 a.m.

A staff member came out and told The Owl that the committee would not be discussing anything in open and would not be reviewing the action items list, seeming to discourage attendance. The Owl went in anyway.

Starting late, the open session was posted to the city YouTube account, it lasted 43 seconds.

Not 43 minutes.

Forty-three seconds.

This committee used to hold its closed session after the open meeting, but that changed at the beginning of 2026. Now the closed session comes first and the open session is an afterthought.

The Bloom is Off The Rose

In November, people were forgiving. The new council was brand new, they were learning their role; they got a pass. The Nov 17 2025 minutes were not published until weeks later when people had other things on their minds, Christmas for one.

People were hopeful about the new council, they were hopeful for real change - fewer closed meetings, fewer decisions made beyond closed doors.

Now it is July and the numbers show that they have spent more time in closed so far this year than the previous council did during a scandal.

This is worth repeating

In 6 months this council has spent almost as much time in closed sessions
as previous council did for the entire year of 2024.

The law sets a minimum standard. Meetings must start in public. Council must vote to close them. They must return to public to adjourn.

But Medicine Hat is not a typical municipality.

The city has been under a shadow for years. The municipal inspection found "irregular, improper and improvident" management and the Minister issued binding directives.

Medicine Hat has a much higher bar than the basic minimum. In 2021, voters only returned two incumbents to the horseshoe, wanting change. They were weary (and they are still wary) of decisions made behind closed doors.

The public has been watching closely, they are paying attention.

The Owl watches as well and will keep watching.

A New Council, Same Closed Doors