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Council Delays Decision on Citizen Advisory Committees
Beginning last night and continuing this morning, city council debated a proposal to eliminate the vast majority of citizen advisory committees which have, for the last number of years, been offering feedback and making recommendations to council on a wide range of areas. (Or rather, to decide not to reconstitute them, as technically the committees are dissolved at the end of each term of council and reformed at the beginning of the next term.) Among these: the Pedestrian Committee, Cycling Committee, Bring Back the Don Task Force, and Children’s Services Advisory Committee. These committees are composed primarily of volunteers with particular interest or expertise in a given area, with some councillors also included among committee members.
This was not a cost-saving move (from the City staff report: “[t]here are no financial implications”); the stated rationale was that these committees “have completed their mandate, are redundant, or dormant.” Given that many of the committees focused on ongoing issues (such as cycling or children’s services), this struck many as odd, and was described by concerned councillors and residents as a move designed to restrict public participation and engagement. “We as councillors can’t know everything about everything,” pointed out Sarah Doucette (Ward 13, Parkdale-High Park) in debate, and many of her colleagues echoed that sentiment.
Despite those worries, councillors decided in a series of votes to refer the proposal regarding most of the advisory committees to the mayor’s office—a procedural delay that means council will reconsider whether to reconstitute the committees at its meeting on July 12.