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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The effectiveness of the city's social issues committee remains a question mark if its terms of reference aren't revised after city councillors were assigned committee posts last month, says one former councillor.

Coun. Dan. Wong: Social issues committee "absolutely" important. Coun. Linda Bussey was named the new chairperson last month and is hopeful she can build a stronger partnership with the GNWT. -

"The last time we met we had a really hard time getting quorum," said former chairperson Amanda Mallon, who left the last council wondering if the committee was the right body to tackle such problems as public intoxication, affordable housing and poverty.

Minutes of meetings on the city website show that the committee hasn't gotten together since last March, although there had been a meeting date set for May 24.

Mallon said to meet quorum, the committee has to have a majority of its members present. However, due to absenteeism and a reluctance of participation last year, the committee became dormant. The year before, the committee only met three times.

"It was a well-meaning committee with a difficult mandate and a difficult membership," said Mallon.

At this point, Mallon says it would be advisable for the new council to revisit the mandate of the committee because it hasn't been effective.

City councillor Linda Bussey, who has sat on the committee before as a representative of the chamber of commerce, was named the new committee chair last month. She agrees the mandate has to be reviewed.

"I think the first thing that needs to be done is we need to go through the terms of reference and we need to broaden the participation and we need to have more people from the general public," Bussey said. Last term's council became frustrated with the progress of the committee when GNWT employee representatives were forced to take a less active role because of a potential conflict of interest.

Bussey and her alternate, Coun. Dan Wong, are both employees of the GNWT.

"I can't put myself in a position that would hurt my employer," admitted Bussey when asked about potential problems as a full-time human resources manager and a city councillor. "But I think (being chairperson) would put me in a spot where I could be a good conduit to a great partnership (with the GNWT)."

Wong, who initiated a motion for $50,000 to go to the day shelter during budget deliberations, sees this committee as "absolutely" important, given the safety concerns citizens raised to candidates during the election. He is open to changing the terms of reference to make the committee function better, but says it remains one of the few ways council can bring social issues to the GNWT, other than through quarterly meetings with MLAs.

"I think there is a difference between taking on a responsibility for the issue and working together as partners to do what we can," he said. "Obviously it is a tough nut to crack and we need everyone working together to get the policy options on the table."

Last February council tried to solve the perceived conflict of interest with the GNWT by making two amendments to the terms of reference including that the two appointed members from the GNWT -- representatives from the Departments of Justice and Health and Social Services -- serve in an "advisory" capacity. This would limit GNWT representatives from any decision making to simply providing "information, presentations or clarity on various issues or programs offered by the GNWT," according the amendment.

A second amendment was also made to have meetings held bi-monthly, as opposed to four times a year, in order to increase the frequency of meetings.

Despite the problems with the committee last session, Bussey says she is optimistic that she can find a way to work with the GNWT to see that the committee is effective.

"I think (the GNWT participation) is important and that they should be at the table," said Bussey. "I think they should be ex-officio. A lot of the issues are their responsibilities and it will be their funding that helps us move forward. But we need to make them part of the process and kept to the solution."

Mayor Mark Heyck, who hasn't sat on the committee, will have an ex-officio position as mayor. He says all committees will be looked at over the coming months, with the social issues committee being one that needs to be reviewed.

"I think it probably needs to be re-examined," he said, adding the mandate could be too broad. "We are doing a review of all of our committee structures in terms of the list of committees the city has. That list of committees tends to grow but rarely do we re-examine the purpose or the mandates of those committees. That is something we will do over the next several months."

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