Operations Services staff be directed to investigate and report back on winter control and winter maintenance service levels, including potential additional services…

36:20audit i'll turn it over to you robert all right thank you councillor Goller and good afternoon

36:31council and mayor um just want to give you a quick overview of the report without any

36:37formal presentation but uh just to give you a sense of where the report uh some of the things

36:41i want to highlight from the report um so the report presents the 2026 internal audit work plan

36:47and also provides a status update on 2025 activities as well as previewing priorities for

36:53audits in 2027 and beyond the plan supports the city's strategic objectives through improved

36:59governance risk management and internal control evaluations before we get into the details i

37:05wanted to highlight a few things about the process of setting the plan as in prior years the audit

37:10plan was developed using a number of input factors these include feedback from management and council

37:15consideration of emerging trends and results from an internal audit risk assessment utilizing

37:21self assessments completed by all department leaders i also want to sorry excuse me i also want

37:27to assert that all internal audit activity from sitting this plan to executing audits was done

37:33independently and objectively with no undue influence from the management team lastly internal

37:39audit activities do comply with the international internal audit or IIA standards for internal

37:45auditing attachment one of the report lists the 2026 priorities audits that are going to be focused

37:53on uh and these were chosen because of their elevated risk areas and potential governments

37:59improvements in terms of the 2025 audit status update as noted in detachment three four audits

38:07were scheduled two have been completed and two are in progress and are expected to be completed

38:11with the report reports to council in q2226 pre-consulting projects were completed including

38:19enterprise risk management framework advancement as well as an internal departmental compliance

38:24review with the updated IIA standards that became effective for 2025 during 2025 we also

38:35presented the first ERM risk register uh to council and that was done in june of 2025 an update to

38:42this document will be presented in july as part of our continued our commitment to continuous

38:48improvement at the end of each audit we ask clients to complete a customer survey using the

38:53results to identify opportunities to enhance the audit process the benchmark standard is a score of

38:5875 a satisfaction score of 81 was achieved in 2025 executing the audit plan strengthens

39:06strengthens governance accountability and risk management practices for the organization

39:12recommendations made in the audit reports were all accepted by management with action plans plans

39:17in place and followed up by us an internal audit there are sometimes financial implications of

39:22audit findings and these are managed through departmental budgets and council approval

39:27so looking ahead to 2027 and beyond work plan attached in attachment to uh was updated using

39:34the same risk based approach and lastly the internal audit charter remains valid until the end of

39:39current council term it will be updated next year with the uh new term of council

39:44so in conclusion the 2026 internal audit work plan positions the city to proactively manage

39:51risks improve efficiency and maintain compliance with professional standards while supporting

39:55strategic priorities and i'll open up the floor for questions thank you very much for that presentation

40:04i will go to the mayor first he said he wanted to ask a question or move a motion thank you chair

40:10and through you yeah i'm happy i'm happy to move the the work plan for 2026 first uh do we have a

40:17secondary is that councillor was it till that had her hand up okay thank you thank you so yeah just

40:23a couple of questions and then maybe just a little bit of a follow-up um the first one was just a

40:27question on the flow through of the building permits and inspection that's not quite done it's

40:34just kind of moved it moved into 2026 but it will be done in the first uh one or two quarters of this

40:39year i believe am i am i right on that i think so through the chair gollard to you mr. mayor yes

40:44that's correct okay report coming up in may and i was just wondering um is there anything that was

40:50a carryover or anything within your work plan right now where that can kind of scoot to the front of

40:55the line i'm just wondering like or know your plan has to follow the the course that it's on and it

41:02will it will be done when it's done so mr. mayor you referring to that particular audit just that

41:07one yeah just wondering because i know it's it's it's a carryover which we all want to have done

41:12but i'm just wondering like yeah i hope i explained the question right i'm just wondering can it can

41:18be moved moved up and can we get that information sooner than later because if there is anything

41:22within that i'm not not that the other ones aren't important but if there's anything in that one that

41:27does come across as needing some attention i was just wondering about trying to get that done earlier

41:33as quickly as possible so that we can implement the things that we want to have changed sooner

41:38yeah through uh through chair gollard to do uh mr. mayor um that report is actually in its final

41:43winddown phases right now okay that audit work okay so i think leaving it in that may

41:48timeline to have the final report to council is probably advantageous i don't think we can rush

41:53the process okay no no problem because we still have to go through it just a curiosity question so

41:59thank you very much do not rush it thank you okay and then my final one is wouldn't be a surprise

42:04about the winter maintenance one so thank you to staff and to you for acknowledging and putting

42:09this on as a recommendation i don't think anyone's gonna you know second guess that that's something

42:14that maybe we want to have looked at fair enough um but i just want to understand the scope of what

42:20you're doing for a value for money audit compared to what might be and council knows like a secondary

42:28sort of motion that might tie in with uh with where this is going and so when you do a value

42:35for money audit uh you're just looking at the existing policy standards and and how that is

42:42operating compared to it compared to those policies and standards now right nothing out of scope of like

42:50extra engagement or extra options or extra considerations it's just what do we have now

42:58and how is that how is that stacking up against itself am i explaining that okay yes you are

43:05through uh the chair councillor color too yourself mr. mayor yeah absolutely so our audit process does

43:09follow the value for money framework which includes an evaluation of current level of services and

43:15expectation standards to the point of that audit so our audits would not involve adding extra

43:22extra possible work or extra possible resourcing that's needed by the department i think that would

43:27be best served through a more full-sum exercise executed by the particular department in this

43:32case operations to sort of evaluate if that is something that that they're able to do within

43:37their work planning and their opportunity to do that in the near future so you're absolutely right

43:42our audit focus is just on existing sort of standards and practices and we'll assess effectiveness

43:47efficiency and economy to that yep perfect thank you well well stated so if um and i'll you know

43:54obviously i'll table this with my my colleagues to see if there is that that other option

44:01how would you work with how would you scope your work to be because you have a lot of um

44:07blinders in place place for a reason right you're like you're independent right so you want to do

44:13your work but at the same time how could if there was a an added scope on the operation side

44:20can you at least uh align the tabling of that report for council at a certain date you know

44:27down the road in 2026 so it could come together so we get the the internal audit the value for

44:34money audit that shows us how the existing maintenance standards and policies are working

44:40but then the operations can also table their options for what's happening at the same time

44:45and would it at least be done in enough time do you think your audit for um influencing

44:53the next budget if there were any you know impacts to that yeah through uh chair gollard to you

44:59yeah absolutely i mean obviously we haven't had any scoping discussions with the operations team

45:06or even talked about the timeline of the audit but definitely we can work with them and try and

45:13align to make sure that the results of our audit which i think would be beneficial to them in terms

45:18of establishing some baselines on existing services and then using that information to sort of help

45:24and you know at council direction decide if there might be some additional work or focus that

45:30needs to happen on possibly changing or altering or expanding those services so yes we would

45:35definitely work with the operations team to to provide a timeline that works for both of us

45:41i don't know Colleen if you want to i don't think that uh it's up to the chair okay i mean i was

45:47good to ask Colleen a question i mean wc a clock push a question anyways but yeah there's a couple

45:52of other questions but you go ahead so the floor is still yours well i i just because Robert acknowledged

45:59uh wc a clock push i just it saves me asking a question so so why don't you go ahead and say

46:05would you agree with sort of the timelines and the opportunity that would be before us if such a

46:10motion passed then i'll go right back to you chair gollard in case there's questions to the

46:14please go ahead the bco sure thank you for the opportunity so that a couple of things maybe that

46:19would be helpful for context so our operations department is sort of our quarterback for lack

46:24of a better analogy of our winter control efforts but we do have winter control efforts that take

46:27place both within our parks team and within our corporate facilities team so we would want

46:31any review while it would be led by our operations team we would want it to be a fulsome review of

46:35our winter control efforts um and the last time we provided an update to council there was an

46:40information report in uh june 2022 um i think june 17th if anyone wants to go look it up um was the

46:46last time we provided a fulsome update on what our winter control efforts are and at that time

46:51there's also attachments to that report um that anyone can look at because we do have council

46:55approved standards for level of service so council has set out for us and approved what are the

47:00service standards for example um how soon we get to residential sidewalks versus um bus stops versus

47:09streets that sort of thing and so those council approved standards exist um and uh and so uh

47:15the sort of long way around answer would be to say that if there was a desire to change those

47:19levels of service council would need to direct us to change the level of service obviously what you

47:23need from us is a sense of what would that take what would be the costing equipment staffing the

47:28resources that would be needed and so as mr. Jelassica said that would be work that would be

47:33coordinated through our operations department and we could come back to council with a report or

47:38some options for you on what would it take to change those levels of service that are currently

47:43that we're currently always trying to meet um so in answer to the timing question the the one

47:49flag that I do just want to say is that um we it's the same team who does a lot of our reviews

47:53within operations we pulled them off the e-scooter review when council directed us to move the

47:57renovation bylaw our review forward and it is the same staff who would need to do this work and so

48:02we would need to take that away and look at options um in terms of could this wait until after the

48:08renovation bylaw work was done does it need to happen sooner in which case how could we resource

48:13it and so I don't want to give specifics today um just kind of wanted to hear the discussion from

48:18council to see what the sort of direction was and then we'll need to go away and look at how

48:24we either need to adjust our work plans or look at what resourcing we need um because we did hear

48:29from council that the renovation bylaw was a priority um and so we would just need to take

48:33this away and figure out how best to look at that in 2026. Thank you chair and through you and thank

48:41you to uh CAO clock bush for the for that answer there um and and that's that's that's very fair

48:48I think I was told the renovation bylaw would come back may or June so maybe this is something that

48:52happens after that um but I'll I'll go back to the chair to allow if there's any questions on

48:58on the report but as council knows I'd like to move a secondary motion after this one

49:04around the maintenance snow plow issue okay so thank you. Thank you worship I'll go over to

49:10councillor Caron now. Thank you through you uh chair goller my question was um a little broader

49:15rather than specific items on your work plan I just wanted to comment that I really appreciate

49:20the value for money audits I find them very illuminating quite often we find out we're very

49:25efficient sometimes there's always improvements and sometimes um we actually um need more resources

49:31so they're they're very uh important part of us doing our job to the best of our fiduciary ability

49:37so my broader question was um I know in an audit cycle um you can expect that an audit

49:45in any given area would take place every you know seven to ten years we also at a concurrent

49:51policymaking um calendar we have bylaw reviews and I'm wondering if you could just speak to

49:57how we integrate our bylaw reviews with our internal audits and whether they're in all of my

50:05years on council we've never had an internal audit on the same department and the same line item

50:11when when can a department expect to have a review every 15 years uh broader broader question about

50:18the role that you're playing in the in the overall organization um through chair goller to

50:24councillor Caron uh yeah that's a great question and I think part of that speaks to the um the sort of

50:31the sort of time that internal audit has been a function here at the city of golf uh we really

50:36I think started this risk-based approach of a mistake in around 2017 uh and so understanding

50:42that the city is is is large there's a lot of different service areas there's a lot of different

50:46components um and you know quite honestly risks and the emergency emerging risk library or emerging

50:53risk world seems to change regularly and so we try to as much as we try to be proactive a lot of

50:59times I feel like our audits are a little bit reactive as well uh to some of the things that we

51:03should be doing um so I would say it's it's difficult to answer that question in terms of a specific

51:08time period when you know department should expect to to see an internal audit um so it's hard to

51:15say that and again this is why I think we do the annual audit plan setting uh through an avenue

51:20like this uh I know colleagues uh some of my colleagues will do like a five-year audit plan

51:24I think that you know that would be just a little bit too long of a term for us to be able to say

51:28yeah you know what in four years we're going to look at this because there are changes that that

51:32happen um so I think my hope would be that you know once we get through a sort of larger

51:38number of audits and again the ERM framework and policy help in that regard because it helps us to

51:43sort of identify the higher risk areas that we should focus on not only as an organization but

51:48internal audit as a department and so I think that having having gone through the different

51:53processes and functions uh at least as a first crack then we can sort of look to see what type of

51:59you know planning we could do in the future to have some of these repeat audits we also do

52:04counselor have a follow-up process so some of the larger areas that we audit and if we see a lot of

52:10recommendations come out of those we can execute a follow-up audit within a reasonable amount of

52:14time so for example more recently we did a follow-up of the payroll process which with an audit that

52:20was done back in 2017 identified a number of recommendations and so it was felt prudent that

52:24we should put that into our sort of audit plan for a camera year we did that but we did a follow-up

52:29audit within about a five-year window when all of the recommendations were were more or less

52:34completed and so that's something else another tool that we could use to help us sort of move

52:39audits into the the audit sphere if you will and as I always do every year I ask counsel for

52:45their thoughts and opinions on which audits we should execute so certainly I would encourage you

52:49and your colleagues if there's things that you want us to look at let us know what that is

52:54including a possible scope for that and we'll certainly work to add it into the audit plan

52:58depending on the risk assessment that we do. Okay thank you very much and I remember hearing that

53:02there's about 700 distinct services that the organization offers and if you do three to five

53:07a year that could take every 200 years your department gets an audit which of course obviously is

53:12is not good management of our resources so I'm really glad to hear that both regulatory change

53:16and council priorities are helping to steer that work plan so thank you for that. Thank you

53:22Councillor Kerr-on and I'll recognize Councillor Busuttil you're up next. Thank you and through

53:28your chair Goller I think most of my questions were asked by Mayor Guthrie but it's in relation

53:34and thank you to Mr. Jelacic and to your team I know you're a very small team but you're very

53:39effective and really appreciate the work that you do. It's around the scope I'm trying to understand

53:46the continuum of the scope would it include things like communication you know where is the plow

53:53report a problem do you go outside of operations or is operations just the you know hitting the plow

54:01on the road kind of operations? Yes thank you through chair Goller to Councillor Busuttil.

54:10Again we haven't had any detailed scoping discussions yet either internally for us as a

54:14department or with the with the teams that are involved in later maintenance but yes absolutely

54:20we wouldn't limit it to just the pure operations function we would look at the various components

54:25that would be a factor and again we use a risk-based approach so we wouldn't necessarily look at every

54:31single item that might be part of winter control maintenance but we will try to focus in and hone

54:36in on those areas that traditionally have been sort of higher risk in that particular function and I

54:43think certainly you know that sort of customer focus and that complaint dealing with complaints

54:50would be an element that would probably be in the scope of this audit like it is in most of the

54:54audits that we do execute we usually do look at that sort of customer feedback mechanism and

55:00more importantly to us is how those are dealt with and how they're escalated and how they're

55:03sort of action so we would look at that as a as a very strong possibility within the scope of the

55:08winter maintenance audit. Thank you very much. Thank you Councillor Busuttil. Are there any other

55:15questions or comments from my council colleagues? Seeing none I'll turn the floor back to your

55:21worship. Okay that's supplementary okay well thank you very much for this report Mr. Jalasek

55:31we're all very excited to see the work plan for 2026 I really appreciate it I'll call the vote

55:38all those against this report this motion. Seeing none the 2026 work plan is received thank you so

55:51much and with that I'll turn it over to Mayor Guthrie. Okay thank you and it stops the clerks

55:58to throw it up on the screen there for me the secondary motion that ties in with the

56:05value for money audits moved by myself and seconded by Councillor Busuttil that the

56:10operation service staff be directed to investigate and report back on winter control and winter

56:14maintenance service levels including potential additional services that the report back include

56:20financial and resourcing analysis along with the incorporation of community engagement components.

56:25I think I'll just let it stand at that but with a caveat that we've heard from Deputy

56:32CAO Clark Bush that if between now and the end of the month if you're looking at sort of the work

56:37plan and and the scope of you know when to do it and the resourcing and stuff that I'm happy to have

56:44that amend what comes back at the end of the month based on what Deputy CAO Clark Bush says but I'll

56:50let this stand for now as it is. Okay that's it I think everyone wraps it so thank you for that

56:57Mayor Guthrie so far I have questions from Councillor Caron and Councillor Oltt any other

57:01questions on this no okay I'll go over to you go ahead thank you Chair Goller and I guess it's a

57:07question to the mover and I hope it's friendly one of the lines says including one of the things

57:11that isn't included in there is that I think makes a good review is best practice comparison to other

57:18municipalities and I wondered whether that should be included in the review or whether staff would

57:24automatically include that in a review as a matter of process or whether you need direction from

57:29council to include it. Yeah I thought maybe it was maybe captured in the wording that says potential

57:37additional services that those that phrase would allow them to look at best practices but I'm not

57:43sure maybe staff should answer that because if it's required I'm happy to go with you on that.

57:47Please go ahead the PDCO. Through the chair I think we hear the sentiment and we recognize that we

57:53would typically do best practice review anyways but here in this discussion we would certainly include

57:57that. Thank you Councillor Caron I'll go over to Councillor Oltt go ahead Phil. Thank you Chair

58:05Guller actually Mayor Guthrie answered my question in his response. No other questions then to the

58:14motion on the table on the floor then I'll call the vote all those against the motion please raise

58:21your hands. Seeing none it passes unanimously. Thank you Mayor Guthrie and thank you Councillor

58:28Bousatil for bringing that forward. With no other items I will just look to see if there are any

58:35service area announcements I think nothing else besides what we've covered so we're good thank

58:41you so much for coming and for bringing the the audit for 2026. I'll turn this over to Councillor

58:49Caron now. Welcome everyone we are now sitting as the corporate services and offers of the CAO