Brian Mastel, head of the city's public services division, discusses the creation of a new "Community Vibrancy Committee" with the standing committee on Monday afternoon.--News Photo Collin Gallant
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
City council will begin next month the process of collapsing a group of advisory boards into one “Community Vibrancy Board.”
The mandate for such a board, approved in concept last fall, is still to be determined, but the nine-member board of council appointees would take on special projects and also determine grant outlays.
The move was approved enthusiastically Monday by city council’s public services committee, with the chair saying it could revive and improve the system of providing advice to council.
“I do think it will be interesting to see what special projects could be involved,” said Coun. Julie Friesen.
Currently the city is moving forward to update a recreation master plan, and council priorities note it denoted increasing community resiliency and activity as an area of special focus for several years.
“It could be all of those things or it could be wider projects,” Friesen told reporters after the meeting.
According to documents presented Monday, the Community Vibrancy Board would stay with current advisory board policy, existing to provide strategic advice to council when they evaluate administration plans, and could help with public outreach on issues.
Its area would “include, but is not limited to, recreation, leisure, culture, arts and social matters.”
A bylaw to create the new board would be presented to council at its April 5 meeting, and a process to advertise for applicants and determine its scope would be developed over the following few months, said division managing director Brian Mastel.
It will replace three main public committees – dealing with parks and rec, social development, and arts and heritage – while sub-groups on public art selection, transportation issues and youth issues, will also be disbanded.
A review of advisory boards began in 2018 and was approved by council last November.
Last year, event grants were suspended due to the COVID pandemic, and remaining amounts reconfigured into a “Community Vibrancy Grant” that went to pandemic-safe proposals decided by an all-committee group.
Mastel said that process is really the “forerunner” of how the new committee would operate.
Councillors say many members of the previous boards are likely and welcome to apply for new positions. Placements would be approved by council, which typically holds a vote in December each year to fill vacant seats on a number of boards.
Previously the boards made recommendations on a variety of city grants, such as amounts to help sporting and cultural groups to host events to promote Medicine Hat.
As well the new board would provide recommendations on Family and Community Support Services grants given by the province and dispersed to local social service providers through a selection process by the city.
Those grants totalled $1.3 million for the 2018-2019 contract period. At the same time, a group of city council members questioned the system that seemed to re-award contracts to agencies while problems seemed to persist.
