A change in provincial legislation has resulted in how members of council react to conflicts of interest.
West Nipissing council was told because of the changes, members of council must now put their conflict of interest on a form explaining their conflict and hand the form to the municipal clerk before the start of the meeting.
However, the legislation does allow for exceptions especially when a debate triggers an unexpected conflict of interest.
Councillor Roland Larabie found himself in that boat at the last council meeting when a debate took an unexpected to turn and Larabie had to exclude his participation because the issue had ventured into a conflict of interest area for him.
Larabie had to verbalize his conflict when he discovered it.
In the future, if such an incident happens again, the member will still be required to fill out a form explaining the conflict and handing the form to the clerk at the end of the meeting.