THE REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF PEEL

REGIONAL COUNCIL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

COMMITTEE MINUTES

PPC-7/2020

Thursday, October 01, 2020

1:00 P.m. - 2:30 P.m.

Council Chamber, 5th Floor

Regional Administrative Headquarters

10 Peel Centre Drive, Suite A

Brampton, Ontario

Members Present:

• P. Brown
• B. Crombie
• P. Fortini
• N. Iannicca
• J. Innis
• S. McFadden
• M. Medeiros
• M. Palleschi
• C. Parrish
• P. Saito
• I. Sinclair
• A. Thompson

Staff Present

• N. Polsinelli, Interim Chief Administrative Officer
• S. Baird, Commissioner of Digital and Information Services
• K. Lockyer, Regional Clerk and Interim Commissioner of Corporate Services
• S. VanOfwegen, Commissioner of Finance and Chief Financial Officer
• P. O'Connor, Regional Solicitor
• A. Farr, Interim Commissioner of Public Works
• J. Sheehy, Commissioner of Human Services
• C. Granger, Acting Commissioner of Health Services
• A. Adams, Deputy Clerk and Acting Director of Clerk's
• C. Thomson, Deputy Clerk and Manager of Legislative Services
• J. Jones, Legislative Specialist
• H. Gill, Legislative Specialist
• S. Valleau, Legislative Specialist
• S. MacGregor, Legislative Assistant

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1.

CALL TO ORDER

The Regional Council Policies and Procedures Committee met on October 1, 2020 at 1:04 p.m., in the Regional Council Chamber, 5th Floor, Regional Administrative Headquarters, 10 Peel Centre Drive, Suite A, Brampton, ON. Committee members and staff participated electronically.

Councillor Brown arrived at 1:32 p.m.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Nil.

3.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

• RECOMMENDATION PPC-13-2020:

  That the agenda for the October 1, 2020 Regional Council Policies and Procedures Committee meeting be approved.

   

   

   

4.

DELEGATIONS

4.1

Jeffrey Abrams and Janice Atwood-Petkovski, Integrity Commissioners, Principles Integrity

Presenting an Overview of Proposed Amendments to the Principles Integrity Recommended Regional Council Code of Conduct
(Related to 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3)

• RECOMMENDATION PPC-14-2020:

  That the Regional Council Code of Conduct provided as an attachment to the delegation from Jeffrey Abrams and Janice Atwood-Petkovski, Integrity Commissioners, Principles Integrity, be approved, as amended;

  And further, that the existing Regional Council Code of Conduct By-law 1-2017, as amended, be repealed;

  And further, that the required by-law be presented to Regional Council for enactment.

Jeffrey Abrams and Janice Atwood-Petkovski, Integrity Commissioners, Principles Integrity, provided an overview of proposed amendments to the Regional Council Code of Conduct with respect to: section B, Framework and Interpretation; Rule 3, Member’s Role in Funding Charitable/Community Activities; Rule 7, Improper Use of Influence; and Rule 10, Media Communications. Jeffrey Abrams noted that the amendments address matters previously requested by the Committee and Regional Council (as outlined in items 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 on the subject agenda).

In response to a question from Councillor Saito regarding her proposed motion (item 7.1), Jeffrey Abrams noted that revisions incorporated into Rule 7 and Rule 10 of the proposed Code of Conduct were included to address the intent of the motion. Patrick O'Connor, Regional Solicitor noted that he would provide alternative wording to the Integrity Commissioner for consideration.

In response to a question from Councillor Saito regarding Council’s ability to block Twitter accounts, Janice Atwood-Petkovski stated that she could prepare sample Code of Conduct commentary to address this concern. She noted that Principles Integrity does not consider commentary to form a part of the approved Code of Conduct. Commentary is intended to be annotated and updated as situations occur and can be added to the Code at any time; whereas amendments to the Code of Conduct would require Council approval. Councillor Saito requested that the Integrity Commissioner provide draft commentary to a future Committee meeting.

5.

REPORTS

WITHDRAWN

5.1

Process to Enact a By-law to Provide Mississauga a Designated Voting Member 

 

 

5.2

Review of Regional Council Composition

(For information)

• RECOMMENDATION PPC-15-2020:

  That the report of the Interim Commissioner of Corporate Services, titled “Review of Regional Council Composition”, be deferred to the next Regional Council Policies and Procedures Committee meeting.

Kathryn Lockyer, Regional Clerk and Interim Commissioner of Corporate Services, stated that a review of Regional Council composition is a requirement of the Municipal Act, 2001, as amended, which states that each Regional Municipality shall review its composition every two terms commencing with this current term. She noted that the review may be completed within the first two years of this term of Council (by December 31, 2020) which would pre-empt the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing from intervening. She clarified that Council may complete the review during the third year of this term (by December 31, 2021) however during 2021 the Minister may intervene and impose a change of composition by regulation.

Kathryn Lockyer noted that the composition review, either by Council (requiring triple majority support) or by Provincial regulation, must be completed by December 31, 2021 for the new composition to be effective in the next term of Council, beginning in 2022.

The Committee requested that the following information be provided at the next meeting:

• a review of Regional Municipalities including number of seats assigned, representation by population, method of seat allocation, and indication of which municipalities have completed composition reviews;
• a review of the City of Ottawa's formula for seat allocation using a mix of representation by population and area; and
• the history of the Region of Peel's composition review including considerations and recommendations provided by previous consultants.

5.3

Regional Council Agenda Development Process

(For information)

• RECOMMENDATION PPC-16-2020:

  That the Region of Peel Procedure By-law be amended to provide that Revised Council agendas be distributed to each member of Regional Council not less than 72 hours (three days), prior to the time of the regular Council meeting;

  And further, that delegations be required to provide all materials not less than 48 hours (2 days) prior to the time of the committee or regular Council meeting;

  And further, that the required amending by-law be presented to Regional Council for enactment.

In response to a question from Councillor Saito, Kathryn Lockyer, Regional Clerk and Interim Commissioner of Corporate Services clarified that the existing Procedure By-law states that agenda materials should be distributed to Council members at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting date, whereby the revised agenda is distributed on Tuesday for a Thursday meeting.

Councillor Palleschi requested that Council meeting agendas provide adequate time to accommodate anticipated long delegations, such as the Peel Regional Police; to enable Regional Council to have a more fulsome discussion.

5.4

Establishing a Region of Peel Media Release Policy

• RECOMMENDATION PPC-17-2020:

  That the Media Release Policy attached as Appendix II to the report of the Interim Commissioner of Corporate Services, titled “Establishing a Region of Peel Media Release Policy”, be approved;

  And further, that the Media Release Policy replace Corporate Policy I30-02 – Communication with Media.

5.5

Replacing the Regional By-law to Indemnify Employees and Members of Council

• RECOMMENDATION PPC-18-2020:

  That By-law 38-2005, as amended by By-law 24-2014 (the “By-law”) be repealed and replaced with a newly enacted by-law to provide:

  a) Clarification of the ability of Regional Council to provide indemnification or reimbursement of legal costs incurred by members of Regional Council and Regional employees in proceedings under or pursuant to the criminal law, including the Criminal Code of Canada (the “Criminal Code”) where deemed appropriate by Regional Council in its discretion; and

  b) Protection for members of Regional Council and Regional employees from liability to the Region and the prevention of proceedings by the Region against members of Regional Council and Regional employees in certain instances described in the report of the Interim Commissioner of Corporate Services and the Regional Solicitor titled “Replacing the Regional By-law to Indemnify Employees and Members of Council”;

  And further, that the required by-law be presented to Regional Council for enactment;

  And further, that staff be directed to revise the Region’s external insurance program to remove coverage for legal costs incurred in Criminal Code proceedings with indemnifying coverage being extended instead in the discretion of Regional Council, to be exercised on a case by case basis.

6.

COMMUNICATIONS

Nil.

7.

OTHER BUSINESS

7.1

Motion Regarding Rules Governing the Conduct of the Regional Chair

as it Relates to the Sharing of Information to Council as a Collective Whole and Endorsement of Regional Council Position Statements

(Related to 4.1 and 7.2)

• Received

7.2

Resolution 2019-1069 - Paragraph [105] from the Integrity Commissioner’s Report Titled, "Region of Peel – Code of Conduct Complaint Against Chair Iannicca – Recommendation Report"

(Related to 4.1 and 7.1)

• Received

7.3

Request that Amendments to the Peel Regional Council Code of Conduct

Include a Process for Resolving Matters Under Joint Responsibility of the Region and Local Municipalities

(Related to 4.1)

• Received

8.

IN CAMERA

Nil.

9.

NEXT MEETING

The next regular meeting of the Regional Council Policies and Procedures Committee is scheduled for Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 1:30 p.m., Regional Administrative Headquarters, Council Chamber, 5th floor, 10 Peel Centre Drive, Suite A, Brampton, ON.

Please forward regrets to Harjit Gill, Committee Clerk, at [email protected].

10.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 2:11 p.m.