Proposed changes to the city's flag raising policy will be back in front of council for debate Monday after the issue was deferred back in May.
Administration was recommending city council approve several revisions to limit the flags that may be raised to the Canadian, Ontario, City of Windsor, and the Franco-Ontarian flags, while also providing flexibility to recognize visiting official delegations.
The issue drew attention from area groups, mainly the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, over concerns it would impact the raising of the rainbow flag which is raised each year as part of Windsor-Essex Pride Fest, a city sponsored event.
At the May meeting, council deferred the item so more information could be sought around how the policy would work, with mayor Drew Dilkens stating at the time that proposed changes in the policy would not impact the 2SLGBTQIA+ community's ability to raise the rainbow flag.
Several reasons were cited for the proposed changes, including the staff time required to vet each request and the potential for reputational risks if mistakes are made.
Administration is bringing back the recommendation with a revised approach to include allowing for special flag raising and proclamation requests if they are directly related to the city in way of a relevant funding or partnership agreement, or corresponds with relevant days of awareness, celebration, importance, commemoration or promotion, as recognized by the province or federal government.
Ward 1 councillor Fred Francis doesn't believe any changes to the current policy are necessary.
Since the policy was adopted in 2022, a total of 425 applications for illumination, proclamation, or flag raising have been processed. Of these, 345 were approved, 79 denied, and 1 withdrawn by the requestor.
Francis says the system is working.
"I understand it's more work, but I don't think we have to disregard a whole policy because it's more work for some people," Francis said.
"Everyone has to go to work. I have to go work, you have to go to work, people listening to this have to go to work. I'm sure there's a lot of things in our jobs we don't like doing, we prefer not to do, but we still got to do it."
Francis says he doesn't want the city to give up its power to make decisions.
"I appreciate administration coming back with more information, and the more allowances, but, I don't want to give that up to the province and federal government to decide what Windsor can do with respect to flag raising, proclamation, or illumination," he said.
"I don't want to farm that out to senior levels of government because senior levels of government change."
Francis says Windsor is different than any other community in the country.
"Windsor city council should be able to decide what flags we want to raise, what proclamations we want to make, and what illuminations we want to showcase in the community that reflect our community, that's different than any other community in Ontario or Canada," Francis said.
"Just saying well we'll do whatever Ontario or the federal government does, that's boring. It doesn't showcase our diversity."
Windsor city council meets at 10 a.m. Monday.
-With files from AM800's Rusty Thomson