If Councillor Ron Crush had his way, criminal record checks would be instituted for candidates in the next civic election.
He made the proposal at Monday night's city council meeting, but plans were already afoot for the matter to come up for further discussion at the meeting June 11.
During the meeting, Crush made the point that he thought it made no sense that City workers such as street sweepers required criminal record checks "and yet we will allow someone to provide governance for our community without a criminal record check."
He said the Cities Act and Local Government regulations clearly showed it was something available to the City to consider, and something that would "be an important demonstration of our community and professionalism."
City Clerk Debbie Wohlberg said she had planned to bring forward information on the possibility of criminal record checks for discussion at the June 11 council meeting.
At least one councillor indicated he was not happy with the idea of criminal record checks for candidates.
Councillor Trent Houk said "we're not hired, we're elected in a democracy by people who choose to cast a vote."
Houk did not elaborate further, saying he would save his comments for the appropriate discussion later.
Later during the monthly crime statistics report portion of the meeting, S. Sgt. Phil Wilson indicated criminal record checks for candidates might not be so easy to implement.
"Criminal record checks have a huge delay," said Wilson, who noted the delay was out of the RCMP's hands.
The problem is verifying individuals against those who had received pardons and clemency, people who would then change their names.
It was explained if you apply for a criminal record check and your date of birth matches someone who received a pardon, your fingerprints are taken and sent to Ottawa by the RCMP "even if the staff has known you your whole life," said Wilson.
There is a huge backlog, he pointed out, and it could take months before someone is given the all clear.
