A veteran Kamloops City Councillor has put forward a notice of motion that seeks to limit the amount of time that people have to ask questions of council during meetings and public hearings.

Dale Bass’s motion, if passed, would give each speaker a maximum of five minutes to ask a question about the agenda.

She says it comes after last Tuesday’s lengthy council meeting, which ran close to 4.5 hours.

“My seven colleagues were quite just concerned about how long the meeting went last time and they were frankly a little dismayed that what should have been a question period turned into a lecture period,” said Bass.

“We were hearing things we had already heard, there was no question.”

Bass adds that this will give more order to the meeting, noting that once everybody present has talked, they can go up to ask more questions.

“In a council meeting, if you have more than one question, ask more than one question; ask five questions if you want. Just ask the question so we can be constructive and proactive and provide the information,” she said.

“It is not that they can’t engage with us. It’s that they have to ask a question — that is what it says on the agenda — ‘public inquiries related to the agenda.’ It has to be a question not a 27-minute lecture from someone who we get emails from regularly and know the issues.”

Bass says giving speakers a time limit at council meetings and public hearings is similar to a move implemented by former Mayor, Ken Christian, suggesting it worked well during the last term of council.

“People would come they would ask their question, and they would get an answer. Sometimes that led to more discussion, which is at the discretion of the Mayor once they ask their question. It works really well.”