Aerial shots of Lloydminster City Hall - The Border Pulse
Lloydminster city council questioned a rewritten Customer Conduct Policy Monday, flagging a gap in how the document handles racist and discriminatory language.
Legislative Services Coordinator Hailey Stark presented the draft policy to the Governance and Priorities Committee. Council first adopted the policy in May 2023.
Coun. Michele Charles Gustafson pointed out that Schedule A lists two separate violations. One covers offensive language, punishable by a suspension of one month or more. The other covers racist and discriminatory gestures, punishable by up to three months.
“A gesture is something you do, but language is something you use,” said Charles Gustafson.
She noted the schedule lists slurs as an example under the gesture category, even though slurs are language, not a gesture. As written, a racial slur could fall under the lighter one-month penalty instead of the three-month one.
Stark agreed the wording needs another look.
“That is a very good point, councillor,” said Stark. “It is definitely something that we can look at, incorporating language into the second one that you mentioned, with the up to three month suspension time.”
The policy also replaces the word “suspension” with “trespass notice” throughout. A city administration member told council the change reflects existing practice rather than a new approach.
“It’s just a realignment,” said the administration member. “It’s what we’ve always been using.”
Coun. Jason Whiting asked whether the rewrite responds to a rise in incidents involving city staff. Administration said current incident levels have not returned to pandemic-era peaks, but remain frequent enough to be a concern.
“The complaints and behaviours are different,” said the administration member. “They’re more targeted at our employees for different things than it was during the pandemic.”
Coun. Michael Diachuk asked whether the policy accounts for staff conduct toward customers, not just customer conduct toward staff. Stark said the city has a separate document covering employee expectations and will consider how the two connect.
Mayor Gerald Aalbers asked whether the policy applies to council members as well as administration. City Clerk Shannon Rowan confirmed it covers both.
“The intent is for it to speak to no matter who the harassment is aimed at, that we would use the same type of strategy, whether it’s council or a member of our administration,” said Rowan.
Aalbers also confirmed the policy’s definition of “facility” extends beyond buildings to any city owned property where staff interact with the public, including roads and alleys.
The updated harassment definition now covers incidents that happen in person, by phone or online, whether a single incident or repeated.
No media requests were raised at Monday’s meeting.
Read more: Council reviews conduct policy, rezoning Monday
