By Colin Smith
Is Morinville Council heading down a slippery slope?
That is less likely to be a concern once a section on logical fallacies is included in the orientation binder for newly elected municipal officials.
At its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 26 council passed a motion directing administration to develop such a section for inclusion in the binder.
The aim of the measure, as stated in the motion proposed by Councillor Stephen Dafoe, is “to enhance critical thinking, decision-making and public communication.”
A logical fallacy is the use of emotionally driven or otherwise faulty reasoning in an argument that may appear to be valid if the fallacy is undetected.
In the discussion of his motion, Dafoe highlighted what is known as the slippery-slope fallacy, in which it is argued that a proposed insignificant action will inevitably lead to a chain of related events with major negative consequences and, therefore, should not be permitted.
Among other fallacies are the false dilemma, the causal fallacy, the straw man, the bandwagon fallacy, the red herring and the circular argument.
“We don’t prepare elected officials for the elements of debate that give you a natural built-in BS detector,” said Dafoe.
What he is looking for is a list of fallacies and a brief explanation of each.
“I just see this as a simple way of understanding some of the elements of debate.”
Two other motions moved by Dafoe were passed at the meeting.
In the second motion administration was directed to explore Morinville offering the Clean Energy Improvement Program for residential and commercial property owners, including examples of other municipalities’ bylaws required.
The Clean Energy Improvement Program is an Alberta government initiative that provides residential and commercial property owners with long-term financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades.
Financing for the upgrades is done through municipalities, which can borrow funds at provincial government rates. Repayment is made through a charge added to the property’s tax bill.
Both of the first two motions passed unanimously.
In the final motion, council directed administration to provide a report outlining options available to council and examples from other municipalities regarding limiting the number of any one type of business in the community.
The motion also sought information on options and examples regarding setting distance requirements between businesses of the same type.
Dafoe said the motion was prompted by a business owner’s query about whether this can be done, but touches on an ongoing concern in the community.
“We have all heard it, during the election, and after the election, we have too many pizza stores, too many liquor stores, not enough of this and too much of that,” he said.
“My personal thought is the market should dictate how many businesses there are.
“However, let’s get a report of information so that it’s there. So that when the question comes up that can be referred to.”
The motion was approved by council in a five-to-one vote, with Dafoe, Mayor Simon Boersma, Deputy Mayor Rebecca Balanko, and Councillors Maurice St. Denis and Ray White in favour and Councillor Jen Anheliger opposed.
Anheliger said this would not be a reasonable use of administration time, as it is an area in which the market should decide.
Dafoe also gave notice that at council’s December 10 meeting he would move that administration bring the Responsible Pet Ownership Bylaw before it for a review of the fines and other penalties associated with it.
