[homeles_ot-l] FW: Women's Eyes on City Decision Making - Les femmes ont la prise de décision municipale à l’œil

Mon Dec 1 09:24:32 EST 2014

FYI: The new City Council (taking office today) is scheduled to make a
number of decisions this Wednesday regarding governance / decision-making
processes for the coming four-year Council term. A number of these decisions
could impact the extent to which residents can give input to Council’s
decision-making on matters including affordable housing and homelessness.
The City for All Women Initiative (CAWI) offers a helpful summary of some
pertinent changes – along with tips on how to contact your Councillor about
these changes – below. 

From: City for All Women Initiative (CAWI-IVTF) [mailto:info at cawi-ivtf.org] 
Sent: December-01-14 8:04 AM
To: info at cawi-ivtf.org
Subject: Women's Eyes on City Decision Making - Les femmes ont la prise de
décision municipale à l’œil

Women’s Eyes on City Decision Making

Les femmes ont la prise de décision municipale à l’œil

Call or e-mail your Councillor before  Wed, December 3rd

City Council has called a special meeting for December 3rd to vote on the
2014-2018 City Governance Review which will affect the extent to which
residents can give input into Council’s decision making.  With new Council
only being sworn in December 1st, this gives the public very little time to
consider the report and contact their Councillor.  

Consider these potential impacts on your ability to give input into city
decision making, then contact your Councillor by phone or e-mail before
Wednesday. Remember you can leave a message on their answering machine.  

Follow  this link to find the contact information for your City Councillor:
http://ottawa.ca/en/city-council

For the full report – Governance Renewal 2014-2018, released on November
26th, visit City web-site or see pdf attached.

Proposed: Three Standing Committees will reduce the number of regularly
scheduled meetings from 12 to 8 a year (Transit Commission, Environment ,and
Community and Protective Services). These are opportunities for the public
to present their concerns to Council, as they cannot do at Council meetings.

Risk:  The public has less opportunity for input.  The Transit Commission
has an average of 15 meetings a year between 2010 and 2014, with only one
cancellation.  The public has many concerns about making buses and future
light rail accessible, safe and affordable for residents.  The  Community
and Protective Services Committee oversees most of the social services
provided by the city, and met an average of 10 times a year, with one
cancellation.  The Environment Committee met 9 times a year on average.

Proposed: Eliminate the Community Services Advisory Committee.  In June
2012, the number of citizen advisory committees were reduced from 12 to 5.
Council is now to vote on reducing them to four.  The Governance Review
report notes that residents are engaging more effectively through city-led
and community-led working groups or committees, listing CAWI among them.

Risk:  While working groups can be effective in engaging with city staff,
there are limited avenues for residents to provide direct advise to City
Council. An Advisory Committee is in a position to  be better informed of
Council priorities and issues emerging that members of working group or
community-led committees might miss, such as this Governance Review Report.
With the reduction of  of advisory committees, the Community Services
Advisory Committee has the responsibilities of  informing Council on equity
and diversity, poverty, and social services. The community expertise l on
these critical issues could be lost.

Proposed: Fixed funding envelopes.  The Governance Review outlines the
budget process with a recommendation that “Each Standing Committee will work
within the budgetary funding envelope allocated to the City departments
under their mandate and any increases to the budget will be funded by
offsetting reductions.” 

Risk:  Such restrictions are not conducive to a full and democratic
discussion as to how our City is to prioritize shifting needs that will
emerge during this term of Council.   Having these “fixed funding envelopes”
in the last term of Council resulted in less opportunity for resident input,
as there was no movement on priorities.  The result was that citizen input
had very limited impact on the proposed budget.

Apologies:  CAWI apologizes for not having this announcement in French.
Given the short time frame between the release of the Governance Renewal
Report and the vote on Wednesday, it was not possible to provide
translation.

Suzanne Doerge

Director/ Directrice

City for All Women Initiative (CAWI)

Initiative: une ville pour toutes les femmes (IVTF)

cawi-10yrs-no-text-web

1439 Tedder Avenue

Ottawa, Ontario  K1H 6A5

613-526-5240

 <mailto:sdoerge at cawi-ivtf.org> sdoerge at cawi-ivtf.org

 <http://www.cawi-ivtf.org/> www.cawi-ivtf.org

"We must open doors and we must see to it they remain open, so that others
can pass through."  

"Nous devons ouvrir des portes et veiller à ce qu'elles demeurent ouvertes
afin que d'autres puissent y passer."

Rosemary Brown

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