Hiebert laptop pitch draws little support

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This article was published 20/11/2018 (1982 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steinbach city councillor Jake Hiebert tried to score laptops for city council members on Tuesday night, but his motion was defeated in a 5-2 vote.

Hiebert argued in presenting his motion that a laptop would make council’s work more effective and efficient, while also arguing that using a laptop would be a more secure option to paper copies of city files or information stored on personal home computers.

“It would be considered prudent for city council information, including confidential, secret information, not be stored in paper form or on personal computers where unauthorized family members or others have access to such documentation and information,” he said.

Hiebert had clearly canvassed the room prior to introducing the motion, noting that some council members would appreciate a laptop, while others would prefer the status quo.

Only Councillor Damian Penner came to Hiebert’s aid.

“For me, just as a fine example, while I’m at work I may find that I have a half hour of spare time. I am currently lugging around approximately 400 pages of correspondence to be able to review that at any point in time,” he stated.

Councillor Jac Siemens noted that in the RM of Hanover, councillors are provided an allowance to purchase laptops. In the RM of Ste Anne, he shared laptops are only made available for council meetings. He suggested the city needed to develop policy of its own before moving in the direction of laptop purchases.

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra spoke out against Hiebert’s plan and Siemens’ suggestion of a committing staff time to drafting a report on the subject.

“First of all, we’re talking about city tax dollars here. We’re basically looking a request to use a certain amount of city dollars to buy everyone a laptop and I just don’t see that as a priority. This is not something that any of us campaigned on,” he reminded council.

Though government supplied computers and phones might be the norm for full-time politicians at other levels of government, Zwaagstra said he didn’t see the need for such investment for councillors in their part-time role.

Both Councillor Susan Penner and Earl Funk suggested a technology allowance could still be considered.

In 2017, council approved significant salary increases for both councillors and the mayor’s position. Those salaries increases adjusted councillor salaries from $11,934 to $18,135, the deputy mayor’s salary from $14,166 to $20,535, and the mayor’s salary from $31,152 to $44,000, but a proposed $100 monthly technology allowance for council members was scrapped.