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Jon Christensen
Guelph Council Record

Committee of the Whole · March 04, 2025 · Item 8.1

Accessibility Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-1 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Heritage Advisory Committee Terms of Reference…

Vote on the amended motion under the agenda item Redesigning Advisory Committees of Council – Final Report, 2025-50

Carried (12 to 0)

12 in favour, 0 against — unanimous

This was one of 5 motions on the same item

In the order council took them. A vote makes sense next to the ones around it.

  1. 1/5Another version of this motionAccessibility Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-1 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Heritage Advisory Committee Terms of Reference…Differs here: …Attachment-6 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Committee of Adjustment and Property Standards Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-7 to…no recorded vote
  2. 2/5AmendmentMembership and Composition section of the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee terms of reference, included as Attachment-6 to report 2025-50…Differs here: …building trades, or heritage conservation That the Membership and Composition Section of the Heritage Advisory Committee terms of reference, included as Attachment-2 to report 2025-50, be amended to: Committee members will bring a mix of lived and professional expertise, knowledge and interest related to And that the following items be added to the membership and composition: education community engagement heritage organizationsno recorded vote
  3. 3/5AmendmentMembership and Composition section of the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee terms of reference, included as Attachment-6 to report 2025-50…Differs here: …building trades, or heritage conservationCarried (12 to 0)
  4. 4/5AmendmentMembership and Composition Section of the Heritage Advisory Committee terms of reference, included as Attachment-2 to report 2025-50…Defeated (6 to 6)
  5. 5/5Vote on the amended motionAccessibility Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-1 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Heritage Advisory Committee Terms of Reference…you are hereDiffers here: …Attachment-6 to report 2025-50, be approved, as amended. That the Committee of Adjustment and Property Standards Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-7 to…Carried (12 to 0)

What was voted on

The motion in its exact words, as recorded in the minutes.

That the Accessibility Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-1 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Heritage Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-2 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Planning, Environment and Water Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-3 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-4 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Transportation Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-5 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Economic Development and Tourism Advisory Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-6 to report 2025-50, be approved, as amended. That the Committee of Adjustment and Property Standards Committee Terms of Reference, included as Attachment-7 to report 2025-50, be approved, as amended. That the Advisory Committee of Council - Administration Policy be repealed, as described in report 2025-50. That the Advisory Committees of Council – Meeting Procedures, included as Attachment-8 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the Advisory Committees of Council – Public Appointment Policy, included as Attachment-9 to report 2025-50, be approved. That the following Advisory Committees of Council be dissolved, following the appointment of members to, and the first meeting of, the newly created Advisory Committees of Council: Committee of Adjustment Guelph Economic Development Advisory Committee Guelph Museums Advisory Committee Natural Heritage Advisory Committee Planning Advisory Committee Property Standards Committee Public Art Advisory Committee Tourism Advisory Committee Transit Advisory Committee Water Conservation and Efficiency Public Advisory Committee That the Waste Resource Innovation Centre Public Liaison Committee be dissolved, following the appointment of members to, and the first meeting of, the newly created Planning, Environment and Water Advisory Committee and the approval of the updated Public Liaison Committee Terms of Reference by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. That the Municipal Property and Commemorative Naming Committee be dissolved, following its transition to an alternative form of community engagement.

Moved by Councillor Gibson, seconded by Councillor Billings.

How the room voted

In favour (12)

  • Allt
  • Billings
  • Busuttil
  • Caron
  • Caton
  • Chew
  • Downer
  • Gibson
  • Goller
  • Guthrie
  • O'Rourke
  • Richardson

Who spoke to it

Dylan McMahon, General Manager, City Clerk's Office/City Clerk, presented on the Redesigning Advisory Committees of Council – Final Report. The following delegate did not speak: Tay Anton Morgan Dandie

What council was given

The staff reports and correspondence attached to this item. The summaries are written automatically, so you can tell what a document is without opening a ninety-page PDF.

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What was said

3,572 words from the meeting recording, transcribed automatically. Times are from the start of the recording.

Read the debate(click to open)

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

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