New Council, More Closed Doors: The Numbers Tell The Story
The 2025 council is discussing more items behind closed doors than the 2021 council - a LOT more.
Medicine Hat's current city council is holding more business behind closed doors than the previous council did. The numbers are clear.
We have the receipts!
The Owl reviewed meeting records from two rookie councils: the 2021 council and the current 2025 council. Both had to learn the rules. But the comparison shows a big difference in how much business is done out of public view.
The Law: What Councils Can And Cannot Do In Closed Session
The Municipal Government Act (MGA) sets clear rules for closed meetings.
Section 201.1(3) says:
"When a meeting is closed to the public, no resolution or bylaw may be passed at the meeting, except a resolution to revert to a meeting of a council or council committee held in public."
In plain language: councils cannot make decisions behind closed doors. They cannot vote to add items. They cannot vote to postpone items. They cannot vote on anything except one thing - to open the meeting back up to the public.
The MGA also says that before a council can close a meeting, they must pass a resolution in open session. That means the public must see the vote to close. They must see the vote to reopen. That is the law.
What The Numbers Show
The current council discusses nearly twice as many items behind closed doors as the 2021 council did.
They also add more items - 14 compared to just 2. They defer more items - 24 compared to zero.
On average, the current council discusses almost 6 items per closed session. The 2021 council discussed fewer than 4.
The Procedure Bylaw Issue
The city's own rules say that any item not dealt with in a closed session must go to the next closed session unless they hold a vote in open council to defer it to another date.
However, items are being deferred with no return date. They are falling off the radar.
The public has no way of knowing if those items were ever addressed unless someone meticulously goes through the minutes which are published weeks after the meeting to find out what happened.
Not Everything Belongs Behind Closed Doors
Section 197 of the MGA allows closed sessions for specific reasons: personnel matters, legal advice, economic interests, and a few others.
But some items discussed behind closed doors do not appear to fit those exceptions.
For example, on February 17 2026 the council discussed a City Hall smudging ceremony discussion in a closed session. The public record does not say exactly what was discussed. But a smudging ceremony is typically a public event. It is hard to see how that discussion fits any of the exceptions that allow a meeting to be closed.
The City Clerk's Response
When The Owl asked about the November 17 2025 closed session violation, City Clerk Amanda Peterson investigated. She confirmed the council got it wrong. Peterson said the item should have been added during the open portion of the meeting; she also said the city would do better going forward.
The Streaming Problem
On council meeting days, the city holds closed sessions before the open meeting. Closed meetings start at 3:45 PM. Open meetings start at 6:30 PM.
The public cannot see the vote to go into closed.
They cannot see the vote to come out.
Those votes happen behind closed doors.
Other communities do it differently. They stream the meeting live. You see the council vote to close. You see a screen that says "meeting is closed." Then you see them vote to reopen.
What Comes Next
This is the first in a series of articles about how this council is doing business behind closed doors.
In the coming weeks, The Owl will cover:
Specific items that were deferred and never returned
Items that should not have been discussed behind closed doors
How this council's closed session time compares to the previous council
The Bottom Line
The numbers show a clear pattern. This council is discussing more items behind closed doors than the one before it. They are adding items without public votes. They are deferring items with no return date.
They had training. They know the rules.
The law says councils cannot make decisions behind closed doors. The numbers show this council is doing exactly that.
The Raw Data
Wait until you see what things they postponed/deferred….
More to come!
