RM Dufferin - It’s the little things that can lead to big things

May 12th, 2021

Agenda Uncharacteristically Long

The agenda was released late the day before the meeting and was uncharacteristically long for an agenda. It included all permits which would not typically be presented to the council in a long list under New Business. The agenda went through the alphabet from A through Z, then starting over at AA through to JJ. That’s 36. Interspersed throughout the non-essential items were items that the council did have to review. Still, the way it was listed could make it potentially confusing, increasing the risk that errors could be made.

Council discussed the length of the agenda and how to manage it when the CAO, Rodney Audette, said the items were on the agenda so that council could acknowledge they know what’s going on. Audette admitted the items were not required as only those required were discretionary use applications and applications requiring public notice.

The list of correspondence on the agenda was also long, going through the alphabet A to Z, then again, AA through to JJ.

Councillor Bob Bennett noted the length of time it would take to go through all of the listed items and made suggestions on how to improve the agenda, potentially separating items into different categories so he could prioritize the information. Reeve Kirzinger suggested the items also be split into items that need action taken vs F.Y.I. items.