All Grey County municipalities will now be represented on the budget and finance committee.
At its meeting on Jan. 9, Grey County council voted in favour of a proposal to once again expand the membership of the influential finance and budget committee – this time to ensure each of the county’s nine member municipalities is represented.
In December, county council had voted to expand the size of the budget committee after more councillors than the size of the committee’s membership expressed interest in serving.
The terms of reference change to implement the December council decision were at county council for consideration on Jan. 9.
Hanover Mayor Sue Paterson asked for the terms of reference to be changed further to increase the total membership of the committee to nine councillors, with each municipality having a representative.
“It’s beneficial to the county and it’s also beneficial to the lower tiers,” she said.
The deputy mayors from Hanover and Meaford – Warren Dickert and Shirley Keaveney – volunteered to join the committee if the new rules were implemented. They would join the committee along with: Sue Carleton (Georgian Bluffs), Brian Milne (Southgate), Dane Nielsen (Grey Highlands), Scott Greig (Owen Sound), Scott Mackey (Chatsworth), Kevin Eccles (West Grey) and Warden Andrea Matrosovs (The Blue Mountains).
The expanded membership requested by Paterson set off a debate and discussion that lasted close to an hour. Multiple members of council suggested if the membership of the finance and budget committee was going to expand, then it might be time for the county to review its entire committee structure.
Eccles said several years ago the county had morphed from a system of four standing committees with nine members each (each municipality had a member on two of the committees) to a committee of the whole structure, where county council as a whole met to discuss and decide issues.
“Council got rid of standing committees to have committee of the whole. That committee work was supposed to be done at committee of the whole,” said Eccles. “We’ve got to get rid of one or the other.”
Eccles proposed deferring expansion of the finance and and budget committee’s membership until staff could bring back a full report about possible changes to the entire council structure. However, his motion to defer was defeated.
Greig also questioned the expansion of the committee membership and said he had voted against the December expansion of the committee size because of the cost to add more councillors.
“It’s getting cavalier of council to continue to expand the numbers of the committees and not consider the costs of doing so,” said Greig.
Mackey also supported the call to re-examine the council structure. He said when he was elected to county council the four standing committees were in place.
“I thought there was real value,” said Mackey. “I think we should seriously look at returning to those four standing committees.”
Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy suggested the present structure remain in place and changes could be considered by the council to be elected in 2026.
“This is something the next council needs to consider,” he said.
Ultimately, council voted in favour of moving forward with the expanded membership of the finance and budget committee. Later in the meeting, Eccles brought a notice of motion to examine the current structure to be considered at a future meeting.
