Advisory panels to be disbanded

After a three-year hiatus, the City of Regina’s advisory committees are on track to be officially disbanded at a city council meeting later this month.

“The advisory committees changed from their original design to become more of an advocacy or lobbying group,” said Mayor Michael Fougere. “That’s not what an advisory committee is supposed to be doing.”

A motion to disband all but the accessibility advisory committee — which Fougere described as a “long-standing group that has been very, very effective” — was carried at an executive committee meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Fougere said there was a “mild amount” of pushback when they announced the hiatus, but low engagement prompted the city to reassess whether or not advisory committees are the most effective model for public engagement.

“We are going to continue to provide other ways for public engagement in a meaningful way,” he said. “We have been doing that certainly with our budget processing and with the website and having people sit on boards and commissions.”

During Thursday’s meeting, Ward 4 councillor Lori Bresciani raised concerns about relying too heavily on the city ’s website to connect with citizens, citing barriers to the elderly and new immigrants.

“Those who don’t have computers, don’t speak the language, they ’re facing many hurdles,” said Fougere, adding the city has other ways to provide information to citizens, including a close partnership with the Regina Open Door Society, which offers information on city programs and services to new immigrants.

Creating advisory committees as issues arise was another option discussed on Wednesday.

“We may find that we would like to seek some outside advice from citizens and other groups that have a stake in the issue, but on a caseby-case basis,” said Fougere.

A motion that the city clerk will produce a report “outlining recommendations for public engagement through the future redesign of regina.ca” in quarter one of 2019 was also carried.

In addition to advisory committee changes, the emergency measures committee will be disbanded. Its responsibilities and any delegated authority will be transferred to the community & protective services committee.

“This is a stand-alone committee that rarely meets,” said Fougere. “By putting this with community & protective services, this will actually raise the profile of the subject matter, because you’ll have more eyes on it.”

A motion to form a new committee called the priorities & planning committee was also carried. The new committee would be established to “review and provide advice to council regarding strategic, operational and annual budgetary plans, other emerging issues and develop advocacy positions.”

Fougere said it is designed to relieve a log jam at the executive committee level, “but also to provide focus for a committee that would deal with larger items that sort of transcend a particular report” or committee.

Advisory committees to be disbanded include the arts advisory committee, community leaders’ advisory committee, community services advisory committee, crime prevention advisory committee, environment advisory committee, youth advisory committee and the municipal heritage advisory committee.

With the disbandment of the municipal heritage advisory committee, bylaw amendments will be needed to provide the city manager with the authority to establish an internal selection and criteria process for the annual Municipal Heritage Awards.

The motions carried at the executive committee meeting Wednesday still need to be passed at a city council meeting on Nov. 26.