Councillor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell had to leave Tuesday night’s meeting for one council motion that directly involved her. After two code of conduct complaints were received by the town in March 2023, council met in camera and decided to retain Montana Consulting to conduct an outside investigation. They then met again, also outside of public view, to review Montana’s findings. On Tuesday, they passed the following motion (in part):

COUNCIL HAS DETERMINED THAT COUNCILLOR DEBBIE WIGGINS-COLWELL HAS BREACHED BY-LAW NO. 2022-02, A CODE OF CONDUCT BY-LAW FOR THE COUNCIL OF TANTRAMAR BEING IN VIOLATION OF THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:

SECTION 3.A(ii) REPRESENTING TANTRAMAR
SECTION 3.C(i) RESPECTING THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
SECTION 3.D ADHERENCE TO POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND BY-LAWS
SECTION 3.E(ii) RESPECTFUL INTERACTIONS WITH COUNCILLORS, STAFF, THE PUBLIC AND OTHER MEMBERS OF SOCIETY
SECTION 3.H IMPROPER USE OF INFLUENCE
SECTION 3.H(i) IMPROPER USE OF INFLUENCE
SECTION 3.I(i) USE OF MUNICIPAL ASSETS AND SERVICES

The motion included a requirement for Wiggins-Colwell to attend training “to better understand her roles and responsibilities as an elected official, including effective communication and teamwork.”

The motion passed unanimously, with just Councillor Bruce Phinney, who has been the subject of code of conduct censures by his colleagues in the past, commenting. Phinney said he would vote in favour of the motion, but only because Wiggins-Colwell had told him she would like to do the training involved.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Wiggins-Colwell declined to share details about the complaints. The former Dorchester mayor said she was “just glad it’s all over. Now we [can] all move on and make Tantramar a better place.”