Minutes - October 21, 2021 Governance Committee Meeting

Members Present:

Mr. Bob Parker (Chair)
Ms. Aina DeViet
Ms. Maureen Cassidy
Mr. Mike Steele

Others Present:

Dr. Christopher Mackie, Secretary-Treasurer
Ms. Carolynne Gabriel, Executive Assistant to the Board of Health and Communications Coordinator (Recorder)
Ms. Stephanie Egelton, Senior Executive Assistant to the Medical Officer of Health / Associate Medical Officer of Health
Ms. Emily Williams, Director, Healthy Organization/Interim CEO
Ms. Kendra Ramer, Manager, Strategy, Risk and Privacy
Ms. Kelly Elliott, Board of Health Member
Mr. Matt Reid, Board of Health Member
Dr. Alexander Summers, Associate Medical Officer of Health
Mr. Selomon Menghsha, Board of Health Member

Chair Bob Parker called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m.

Disclosure of Conflict of Interest

Chair Parker inquired if there were disclosures of conflicts of interest to be declared. None were declared.

Approval of Agenda

It was moved by Ms. Maureen Cassidy, seconded by Ms. Aina DeViet, that the AGENDA for the October, 2021 Governance Committee meeting be approved.
Carried

Approval of Minutes

It was moved by Ms. Cassidy, seconded by Mr. Mike Steele, that the MINUTES of the September 15, 2021 Governance Committee meeting be approved.
Carried

It was moved by Ms. Cassidy, seconded by Mr. Steele, that the MINUTES of the October 12, 2021 Special Meeting of the Governance Committee meeting be approved.
Carried

Receipt of Sub-Committee Minutes

It was moved by Ms. DeViet, seconded by Ms. Cassidy, that the MINUTES of the September 9, 2021 Governance Responsibilities Committee meeting be received.
Carried

New Business

2021-22 Provisional Strategic Plan Status Update (Report No. 21-21GC)

This report was introduced by Ms. Emily Williams, Directory, Healthy Organization / CEO (Interim) who introduced Ms. Kendra Ramer, Manager, Strategy, Risk and Privacy.

Discussion on this report included:
• Due to the demands of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, it has been challenging for resources to be appropriately allocated to the goals intended to be initiated in phase two of the Provisional Plan.
• A rapid situational analysis was conducted to help inform decisions about pausing or moving work forward based on organizational capacity.
• Based on the findings from the situational analysis, it was requested that phases two and three of the Provisional Plan be extended by six months.
• It was noted that none of the objectives in the Provisional Plan are facing major obstacles and that it was important for the Board of Health to acknowledge the current context and that staff are very stretched and have been operating in this manner for almost two years.
• It was confirmed that more staff have successfully taken their allocated vacation this year than the previous year, in part due to requesting that staff submit a vacation plan earlier in the year. However, it has been more challenging for the leadership team to take vacation time and there will again be a discussion about vacation carryover.
• It was noted that professional development opportunities for staff have again been negatively affected this year, as with last year; however, many professional development offerings are changing to a virtual format, and staff participation is rising.

It was moved by Ms. Cassidy, seconded by Mr. Steele, that the Governance Committee recommend to the Board of Health to:
1) Receive Report No. 21-21GC re: “2021-22 Provisional Plan Progress Update” for information; and
2) Approve extending the phases of the Provisional Plan by six months.

Carried

Governance By-Law and Policy Review (Report No. 22-21GC)

This report was introduced by Ms. Williams who thanked the Governance Committee members for the amount of policies they reviewed this month, acknowledging that the work was immense.

The committee members discussed the proposed changes for the policies, as outlined in Appendix A to the report. This discussion included:
• It was agreed that the Manager, Human Resources be given signing authority for the appendices of policy G-030 MOH and CEO Position Descriptions due to the CEO and Director, Healthy Organization now being the same individual. It was noted that the Manager, Human Resources historically had this signing authority prior to the creation of the Director, Healthy Organization position.
• It was requested that the policy number be added to the header on each page of its policy.
• It was requested that authorization for media releases be extended to the Associate Medical Officer of Health in policy G-480 Media Relations.
• For policy G-490 Board of Health Reports, it was decided that responsibility for maintaining all Board of Health reports reside with the Executive Assistant to the Board of Health instead of with an Executive Assistant to the Secretary as the Secretary role could now be any member of the Board of Health, who may not have an Executive Assistant.
• For policy G-490, it was decided that the policy did not need to include a deadline for notification for a special meeting of the Board due to it not being required by the Municipal Act and special meetings only having one item of new business.

Lengthy discussion occurred on the proposed wording for policy G-280 Board Size and Composition with regards to the term length of the Board of Health Chair. Key points of the discussion are:
• There was agreement on removing the rotation of the Chair role among City, County and Provincial appointees with the underlying principle of “equity” and allowing any member of the Board the opportunity to nominate themselves to be Chair.
• It was noted that most Chairs have served two terms and that, in most cases, their second term is more successful because they had their first term to learn and develop. However, it was opposed that the policy should state that the Chair’s term would be two years because a) this might discourage Board members from running for the position; b) a Board member may be unable to serve a two-year term due to municipal elections or their provincial appointment term length; and c) it might not be in the best interest of the Board for a Chair to continue serving into a second year.
• Chair Parker requested that other Board of Health members present at the meeting join the conversation. This included: Mr. Matt Reid, Ms. Kelly Elliott, and Mr. Selomon Menghsha. It was noted that there are pros and cons to having a Chair able to serve multiple years consecutively. What was agreed to be important is allowing the Board flexibility to have the person who is determined by the Board of Health to be the best choice for the Board in the role of Chair. It was decided to not change the proposed wording “The Chair of the Board shall be selected by the voting members to serve for a term of one year” as it does not preclude them from serving additional terms.

Ms. Ramer also spoke to Appendix C and requested: 1) approval to proceed with making the changes as required and outlined in the Appendix, and 2) direction on updating the effective date of the policies outlined in Appendix C such that the effective date reflects the changes to the policies, but the review date remains the same and is not updated.

It was moved by Ms. Cassidy, seconded by Ms. DeViet, that the Governance Committee recommend to the Board of Health to:
1) Receive Report No. 22-21GC re: “Governance By-law and Policy Review” for information; and
2) Approve the governance policies appended to this report with the recommendations accepted for G-030 regarding signing authority, G-480 regarding media releases, and G-490 regarding: responsibility for maintaining board reports, to take effect on October 21, 2021.

Carried

Other Business

The next meeting of the Governance Committee is Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 6 p.m.

Adjournment

At 6:50 p.m., it was moved by Mr. Steele, seconded by Ms. Cassidy, that the meeting be adjourned.
Carried

Robert Parker
Chair

Christopher Mackie
Secretary-Treasurer