Grey Highlands council is planning a discussion and debate about the future of its various public committees.
At its meeting on June 19, council received a staff report about updating the terms of reference for the various committees and boards the municipality currently operates. However, before proceeding with a debate and discussion about the report, members of staff recommended that council have a larger discussion about how it would like the various committees to function.
Right now, Grey Highlands has 16 different committees, boards or task forces set up for a number of different functions. Some like the library board and committee of adjustment are required by legislation. Others are advisory boards that are making recommendations to council examples include the museum advisory board and the seniors advisory committee. Grey Highlands also has joint committees with other municipalities such as the joint waste diversion site committee.
In the report staff provided two definitions of committees:
- Advisory Committee - a committee established by council to provide advice and guidance to council on specific items of interest.
- Working Group - shall mean an informal committee established for a term and a task appointed by council. (Also called a task force).
CAO Karen Govan suggested council have a deeper discussion about how the committees should be operating.
“Those of you that sit on committees have to think about how that committee is actually functioning and is it functioning as intended,” said Govan. “There is an opportunity here to not only look at the terms of reference, but look at how our committees are functioning and realigning how our committees should function.”
Govan said council should decide the purpose of the various committees, before staff do the work to update/amend the terms of reference.
“I think we need to determine what it is council’s mandate is for these committees in order for them to continue effectively,” she said.
Council voted unanimously to send the committee item to a future committee of the whole meeting.
“This is a big house keeping item for us to review and be very thoughtful about what we want each of our committees to be focused on,” said coun. Nadia Dubyk.
