Membership and Composition section of the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee terms of reference, included as Attachment-6 to report 2025-50…

43:31the Chief Administrative Officer starting with the redesigning of the advisory committees of Council

43:37and right on here it says the final report and so Dylan is going to give us our presentation I guess

43:47the final presentation as well and then we have we do have no delegations now on this item so

43:56a couple pieces of correspondence and then we'll get into this topic so Dylan I'll turn it over to

44:02you and then it's back to us go right ahead thank you very much Mr. Mayor and good morning

44:07members of City Council I'm very pleased to be here to present to you the final report of the

44:12redesigning advisory committees of Council project this work has taken place over two years and in two

44:18phases the first phase culminated with Council's approval of an advisory committee governance

44:23framework that framework is a best in class example of how to manage advisory committees

44:29at the local level we know it's best in class because dozens of other municipalities in Ontario

44:34are looking to emulate it and several municipalities outside of Ontario including large urban

44:39centres like Vancouver have also expressed an interest in adopting elements of the framework

44:43within their legislative environments the approach that this council has chosen to take

44:48regarding advisory committees reaffirming your support to them increasing resources

44:54approving a framework clearly outlined roles is a model for other municipalities to follow

45:00phase two of the project and what I'm here to talk about today was the application of that

45:05framework to the city's current advisory committees as part of this project city staff engaged heavily

45:11with current committees committee members and City Council and I want to highlight the engagement

45:16that's taken place as part of this project we met with all 14 advisory committees three times

45:22for a total of 42 public meetings with advisory committees we completed a survey that was completed

45:28by 50 advisory committee members we interviewed seven advisory committee members we interviewed

45:32eight members of council we held three public engagement sessions including a dinner with

45:37residents from equity deserving groups we formed a working group of eight current advisory committee

45:42members from seven different committees which met four times to provide feedback on the development

45:46of the governance framework we held two information sessions for committee members to ensure they

45:51understood the new governance framework after it was approved by City Council we held two sessions

45:56specifically for chairs and vice-chairs of committees to discuss different scenarios for the

46:01future of their groups we had participation from chairs representing 10 out of 14 committees

46:07and we conducted small group sessions with seven members of City Council

46:11to get their feedback on topics believed to be a priority for advisory committees

46:16based on this engagement and staff's expertise the final report before you today recommends

46:21the city moves forward with seven advisory committees all 14 of the city's current advisory

46:26committees have passed resolutions in support of those proposed changes and those resolutions along

46:32with any other feedback from current advisory committees is included in the staff report

46:37there has never been a holistic review of advisory committees conducted in the city of

46:42gualph before now some committees have existed for decades with sporadic or no updates or reviews

46:48others have occasionally been merged expanded other terms of reference updated but always in

46:53isolation from the broader advisory committee program of work that lack of systematic review

46:59and continuous improvement is over each of the seven proposed committees will be reviewed once

47:04per term of council including feedback from the committee itself and we expect that each of those

47:09four-year reviews is going to yield changes it could be no changes to some committees it could

47:14be terms of reference tweaks to others it could be significant mandate mandate shifts for some

47:19committees or it could be the dissolution of committees if that particular topic is no longer

47:24a priority for city council this reflects the reality that there is no perfect list of topics

47:30for advisory committees and the topics that committees consider should change over time

47:34as council priorities shift if the proposed changes are approved by council at the end of the month

47:40staff will immediately begin a public recruitment campaign and aim to bring back appointment

47:44recommendations to city council in may following those appointments our new committees can begin

47:48meeting as early as june or july of this year i want to thank two groups for helping us complete

47:53this review phase one of the project in particular was completed collaboratively with the guelph lab

47:59by partnering with the guelph lab we not only leveraged their academic and engagement expertise

48:03but we doubled the amount of funding available for this project by taking advantage of grants

48:07only available to educational institutions and i want to thank the guelph lab for the time and

48:11effort they put into making this project a success secondly and most importantly i want to thank our

48:17current advisory committee members at one time the city has somewhere between 100 and 110 committee

48:24members these are residents who freely volunteer their time taking time away from work friends and

48:30family life to make the city they already love even better city council advisory committees and staff

48:36won't agree on every policy issue and that's the point respectful respectful disagreement is the

48:43cornerstone of our democratic decision making disagreement is not a symptom that needs to be

48:47treated it's the expected result of the systems that we've put in place for this particular work

48:53however i am grateful to have the support of all 14 of our current advisory committees and i want

48:58to thank the city's volunteers for the work they do to make guelph such a great place to live work

49:02in play thank you and i'm happy to answer any questions well thank you so much uh dylan before

49:10we then get to any uh questions can we have someone move the uh item for us okay uh we'll go gipson

49:20and billings thank you just saw them both there so um and is there any uh is there any questions

49:29from anybody at okay i see gipson and we'll start with you go ahead to miss marrick do you know what

49:38i i'll i'll defer to your chairing i have comments not questions okay uh you we can wrap it all up in

49:48one okay thank you everyone can do questions or comments yeah but through you mr mayor i just i

49:55just wanted to give my thanks and uh credit to the clerks department and all the work that they've

50:00done in this file this is a very complex file one that i know council has been looking at for for

50:07terms quite frankly about the the committee structures and how they're formed and and how

50:11many we need and how many we should have in place so uh credit to you and your team um dylan for the

50:19work you've put in i appreciate it after going through the report this week i do appreciate the

50:23fact that we'll be reviewing it every term but at the at the end of the day this is uh this is a

50:28significant amount of work and uh structuring for the city and it is appreciated it doesn't go

50:33unnoticed thank you okay thank you uh oh rark please uh thank you mayor guthrie through you to

50:42mr mcman just a quick question and it's because it adjusts the position between this report

50:47and the responsibility the chair is presenting to council occasionally and then our procedural

50:52bylaw is coming shortly so i can't find it quickly but there's a mention that that a chair of an aoc

51:00can come and present to council that there's no time limit right but then in our procedural

51:05bylaw there is a five or uh 10 minute limit for delegations and there's even a maximum suggested

51:14for staff presentations so i'm curious to know why there isn't at least a recommended maximum i think

51:20it's 20 minutes for staff presentations um i'm just wondering why the same doesn't apply through you

51:27mr mayor to councillor rark so the same restrictions that would apply to staff would advise to chairs

51:32or representative representatives of advisory committees that are presenting so it is a 10

51:36minute limit for staff presentations they are not treated as delegates so they are not subject to

51:41the time limits or registration requirements that are placed on uh members of the public looking to

51:45delegate okay so three america three to mr mcman so just so it's clear to me if a chair of an advisory

51:51committee comes to present to council then sort of the procedural bylaw kicks in and they're considered

51:57at that point that that's correct and i would just add that when advisory committee chairs or

52:03committee reps come to speak to council they are always welcome to speak not as a delegate on any

52:07item where their committee has already provided feedback so it is not just any item that comes

52:12before city council but one where their committee has provided feedback that's included in the staff

52:16report or something like that okay thank you thank you is there anything further at all on this item

52:26okay oh sorry i'm very sorry uh councillor uh ron please we're going to delegations now

52:36nope there's no delegations it's been moved and seconded i was just about to call the vote

52:42yeah i had i had amendments yeah please you have the floor you can

52:48take the amendments that i had sent to clerks um i saw that there were two delegations on the

52:54agenda so i had been holding back my amendments so just confirming i'm on the right item here

53:01which is the final report of the advisory committee okay yeah just to be clear there's no

53:08delegations anymore and it's over to you and you can absolutely table your amendments right now

53:15okay great thank you and and they're fairly simple they're administrative in my opinion

53:20i noticed as i was reading through each of the terms of reference that the membership section

53:26had different language and i just wanted to align all that language so it was consistent

53:31i also felt that in the list of skills-based committees there were certain

53:38areas of expertise on some of the committees that that could be enhanced

53:43um i feel that widening the breadth of potential applicants is a good thing um and um i i don't know

53:55we we had we did have some feedback specifically i think economic development and um committee

54:00of adjustment where we're happy with those additional um membership and composition um

54:07on the heritage gulf there was a real focus on skills-based but i do think that additional

54:13areas of expertise and education could solicit applications from teachers librarians

54:20their education is a wide area we we do a lot of part of the mandate of heritage gulf is to educate

54:28the public celebrate community engagement is and heritage organizations are arts organizations

54:33doors open organizers um um architectural conservancy museums historical societies that

54:40do a lot of research a lot of expertise is in that um and then lived experience i thought that you

54:46know some of the best um uh members of that committee um have been those with lived experience

54:53so i'm just aligning all the terms of reference to be consistent and so i'll place these amendments

54:59on the floor thank you thank you so much would some of you will need to second these

55:08eight and we'll do that thank you and is there any questions on the amendment okay okay gipson

55:18and orark again gipson go ahead thank you three mr mayor obviously i don't want to distract from

55:23the work that's already been done from my staff so i do want to give them an opportunity to weigh in

55:28on their thoughts um how much how much restructuring of our of the report of the proposal does this

55:39represent how much change does it represent does it represent any more does it open this up to

55:45um removing the final designation from the report and turning it back into a working document i

55:52just like to know that this does not represent additional work that needs to now be done through

55:56consultations or anything like that through you mr mayor to councillor gibson um the the short

56:05answer to your question is no these will be changes to the terms of reference which are included as

56:09attached documents to to this report they would still be approved and it wouldn't cause any delay

56:14to the project moving forward um as councillor Caron pointed out with regards to the economic

56:19development and tourism advisory committee and property standards and committee of adjustment

56:23we have no concerns with these particular changes um staff did share some comments and

56:30notes regarding heritage gulf and we do have planning staff available to answer questions

56:34more specifically if if council likes okay thank you through through you mr mayor biville perhaps

56:41ask the same question to planning staff on on their thoughts on the the heritage gulf comment

57:00through the mayor to the councillor um the concerns we raised about the additions to the

57:05heritage gulf committee um relate to the expertise required to provide technical advice on heritage

57:11planning matters at the city um it wasn't apparent to me how education um and community

57:19engagement directly relate to an expertise in heritage planning or heritage conservation

57:29okay i i appreciate that perhaps mr mayor if you don't mind before taking the vote then we could

57:33separate we could separate the items a little bit so that we have an opportunity to vote up or down

57:38on on some of these amendments sure um you know before i go to councillor or roark i just want to

57:47kind of try to make things flow as best as possible maybe i saw the mover put her hand back up maybe

57:52just as a response to that and then i'll go to ororak um i thought i saw you your hand go up

57:58councillor caron did you want to just quickly respond to that yeah it was more um responding to

58:03mr mallin's comments and it's not intended that um it's to widen the breadth of applicants

58:10ultimately staff make recommendations on who's appointed to the committee based on the needs of

58:14the committee at that time and the needs of the committee change over time so for example right now

58:19the committee is very focused on port forward designations due to the expiry of the heritage

58:24register so research and designation and planning and all of all of those skills that are that are

58:29in their terms of reference are very much needed on the committee and they'll make recommendations

58:32to council accordingly and council will appoint accordingly but there's other times where the

58:38committee has a need for a different wider set of skills and again staff will make those

58:43recommendations to us um but excluding i mean education means librarians and and organizers

58:51community engagement is people who like organize doors open arts organizations there's a there's a

58:58wide range of experience in our community and ultimately all this does is invite nominees

59:05the actual appointments and the skills that they bring to the committee will will happen at the staff

59:12recommendation level but opening it up to a wider breadth of nominees can only be a good thing

59:19in my opinion thank you and just before i go to council for our work our deputy ceo gene homes

59:26would like to also reply um through the through the mayor to um to the committee um so a couple of

59:34things that just jump out for us and i appreciate what council caran is saying we do want to make

59:39sure that we're opening um opening up to um a wider group of applicants so we we welcome that

59:49we just wanted to point out to when we see community engagement so that is not

59:54a specialty that's related to the mandate of the of the heritage committee so that is that is not

1:00:00something that necessarily the heritage committee would take on and i just wanted to point out to

1:00:05that um this is a more technical committee than perhaps some of the other committees the heritage

1:00:10act is very prescriptive um so we would be looking to um have those members on the committee who have

1:00:16that knowledge who can apply that to uh some of the the heritage issues that are coming forward to

1:00:22that uh that committee so i just wanted to add that thank you okay thank you so i'll go to council

1:00:28or work and then i'll call the vote on this amendment but i'll split it as been requested okay so

1:00:33council or work same question you had the same question oh okay well that was easy i will then

1:00:38call the vote then on the amendment um i have a feeling can i just have it up on the screens uh clerk

1:00:45i have a feeling it's just the heritage one that i think is just popped out so i have a feeling we

1:00:50don't have to actually vote on all of them differently am i seeing the room agree with me yeah okay

1:00:57okay yeah we're just waiting for it to go up yeah uh mr. mayor uh through you and to the committee

1:01:07we'll we'll pull them up on screen here for you uh we'll have two slides one for clause one one for

1:01:13clause two that you have just mentioned we can vote on uh together and then clause three will be separate

1:01:18okay okay so what you'll see on the screen is one and then you'll see on the second screen number two

1:01:24those can be one vote and then the third one will be separate am i saying that right okay

1:01:31so i will call the vote then on screen on the motions from screen one and two for the amendment

1:01:37from councillor caron okay i'll call the votes anyone against those no perfect let's go to the

1:01:45third screen then which is the one uh directly for the heritage advisory committee okay so i'll

1:01:55call the vote then on that it oh gibson go ahead did you did you want to no no i'm just

1:02:02preemptively putting my hand up i'm voting against okay okay it's always just wait for always just

1:02:08wait for me to call the vote yeah can you just put the screen up one more time for me uh clerk's

1:02:14that'd be great just uh put that back up one more time no one needs to see me there you go okay so i'll

1:02:40call the vote if anyone is against these amendments please raise your hand okay all right so we have

1:02:48oror and downer and guthrie and richardson and billings and um gibson that's six i believe

1:03:01so if it's a six six tie that means the motion fails yep so it's failed point of order yeah go ahead

1:03:11i know it's it is probably too late because you put clause a and clause b i take i'm gonna make the

1:03:18assumption that it's b that's causing the most dissension is it too late to separate a and b or

1:03:23can i bring that back at council i can bring it back at the end of the month yeah i think uh i'm so

1:03:32sorry then let's just it's okay the vote's already been taken yeah i'll bring it back we could we could

1:03:37look at maybe just throw it up on the screen though just so everyone's not bringing it back at the end

1:03:42of the month yeah so i plan to bring it back anyway yeah no i know i know that part but just for the

1:03:49sense of the context of the discussion we're in throw it back up just so i can see it just so

1:03:54everyone can see it just so we can know what to expect at the end of the month yeah so it could

1:04:00have been a might have been okay as you're as you're saying education you know see heritage

1:04:04organizations might have been okay but it might have been more of the b one that uh that jumped out

1:04:08everyone so yeah just think about that one then in that context for possibly the end of the month

1:04:13okay i'll look to you thumbs up perfect thank you okay is there anything further on this one

1:04:23if not i could call the vote then as amended i'm going to do it i will call the vote then

1:04:30on the redesigning of advisory committees of council the final report but as amended

1:04:38is anyone against that nobody dylan staff good job all right appreciated

1:04:49councillor downer is clapping we will all we will all do this because it is a lot of work

1:04:54thank you thank you to the three of you that joined in with me on that that's appreciate it

1:05:01all right let's keep moving along then the 2025 governance review dylan you're up again