A discussion over wording in the MD of Bonnyville’s human resources policy led to a brief but pointed council debate before the policy was ultimately approved without changes.

Council was considering amendments to the municipality’s Human Resources Management Policy, which administration said mainly involved minor updates such as changing the responsible department, cleaning up legislative references and shortening the review cycle from five years to four.

During discussion, Councillor Josh Crick asked whether council could remove the word “diversity” from a section stating the MD will maintain a work environment that ensures “diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”

“I wonder if we can just take out the diversity and just have it say … inclusion in the workplace,” Crick said. “I don’t think we need to have it ensuring diversity.”

Crick said he was uncomfortable with policy language that could be interpreted as pushing diversity targets, though he added he had nothing against current staff.

Other members of council pushed back on the idea of removing the wording.

One councillor responded that diversity could simply mean ensuring different people are welcomed in the workplace.

“We have a diverse council now with a female councillor here,” the councillor said. “That’s what we’re promoting.”

Councillor Dan Amalia said he understood Crick’s concern, but supported keeping the language as written because he viewed it as a statement about workplace culture, not hiring quotas.

“I’m more comfortable with it in that we will ensure that our work environment and the workplace itself would not be excluding diversity,” Amalia said.

After an informal show of support around the table, council moved ahead with the policy as presented. Crick reiterated that his concern was with the wording, not with staff.

“I just didn’t like the word diversity in there,” he said.

Council then voted to adopt the amended policy.