A motion by Councillor Jeff Beattie could lead to a behind-the-scenes peek into how staff approach budget deliberations. An unintended consequence of the accidental disclosure of recommendations to close down icemaking at Stoney Creek arena, and possible closure of Wild Waterworks, is that it has revealed the existence of a list of cost-cutting measures developed as contingency by staff that has not been shared with council. With that in mind, Stoney Creek councillor Jeff Beatttie proposed that the entire list be made available for examination by council.

Coun. Jeff Beattie made a motion Wednesday to have city staff compile a list of cuts that did not make it to the final report. The Stoney Creek councillor said he would like to see all potential budget-cutting scenarios considered by staff, as well as the rationale for their exclusion.

If this was simply an error, Beattie wonders why Horwath didn’t say so when the issue was raised three times in the budget meeting on Friday. Her statement didn’t arrive until nearly five days later.

“It seems to me, if somebody was not in favour or spotted a mistake on Friday, to make a correction on Tuesday, that just seems odd,” he says.

As this was happening, the people got involved. All three councillors say they heard it. Francis says his social media, texts, phone lines and email exploded.

“The community lost its mind,” Beattie says.