Public has plenty of time to review issues

Simcoe.com editorial Feb 09, 2011

Bradford West Gwillimbury council made a very important decision Tuesday night, but it’s something many people in the community probably won’t notice.

Council discussed whether or not to eliminate committee of the whole, deciding in the end to keep the committee.

Unless you attend council meetings regularly, you may not know what committee of the whole is.

The committee includes every member of council and its meetings are usually when issues come before council for the first time.

Although the committee includes every member of council, it only makes recommendations to council. At the next official council meeting, council can either accept those recommendations or go in a different direction.

Council almost always accepts the committee recommendations, but it’s that rare occasion when council changes direction that makes the decision to keep committee of the whole so important.

Committee of the whole meetings take place after most regular council meetings. The recommendations from the committee come back before council at its next regular meeting.

As a result, members of council have at least a week to review and reflect on the committee’s recommendations and the discussion surrounding them.

Members of the public who attend the committee meetings or read about them in the paper or online can contact members of council to provide their opinion before council makes its final decision.

Committee of the whole ensures almost every issue that comes before council gets a review period of at least a week and a half.

Because council decided Tuesday to meet regularly on the first and third Tuesday of each month, excluding July, as of March, the issues will get a review period of at least three weeks.

That’s because the agenda for each meeting will be released a week in advance, meaning the issue can be reviewed in the week leading up to the committee meeting and the minimum two weeks between the committee meeting and the next council meeting.

Usually, the only issues that skip the committee of the whole stage are time-sensitive issues on which a decision must be made quickly, so almost every issue that comes before town council gets a thorough review thanks to committee of the whole.

Unfortunately, too few people know about committee of the whole, or how town council works in general.

Even though every issue gets a lengthy review period, too many residents don’t know what the issues are to begin with.

The decision to keep committee of the whole means you will still have plenty of opportunities to comment on issues before council.

Now it’s up to you to take advantage of those opportunities.