Saint John council has approved the addition of two new standing committees.
At Tuesday’s meeting, council decided to add the quality of life and service and operations committees and discontinue the growth committee.
Council will now have four committees in total, with public safety and finance continuing.
“This would give the opportunity to put more focus on service levels, like winter management plan, and also a positive quality of life examinations like Play SJ at the committee level, where the work is really done before recommendations come to council,” said CAO Ian Fogan during his briefing to council.
Standing committees are where work on many city matters is done before recommendations come to council.
According to a staff report, the recommendation to add the committees was made to reflect a renewed focus on quality-of-life initiatives and on performance levels in operations.
The report suggests the quality-of-life committee could assume portions of the growth committee’s mandate and focus on areas such as recreation, housing and development, in addition to parking services.
Staff also recommended changes for the two committees that will remain.
They suggested the finance committee broaden its scope to include tax-base and economic-growth files, and that the public safety committee incorporate a new mandate to include police governance in addition to the various other public safety issues already brought before the committee, which were also issues the growth committee looked after.
Coun. Gary Sullivan applauded the expansion of the committee system, saying he believes it would allow councillors to explore issues they have gotten “bogged down on” before, such as winter management and deciding which lawns get mowed.
However, he said he is concerned about the timing of populating the committees, as in previous years the finance committee would already be addressing the city’s next budget.
“I would like to see the committees populated at our next meeting,” he said.
Fogan said staff is recommending the finance and public safety committees be populated immediately.
According to the staff report, the city will need to create new or updated terms of reference — which outline the mandate and responsibilities of each committee — before the committees have members.
Fogan added staff is also recommending standing up the quality of life and service and operations committees in a month or two, when staff return with the terms of reference for the committees.
