Changes have been made to the City of Flin Flon’s committee system and the first appointments to the new groups have been made.
A measure to streamline municipal committees was approved by council during the group’s Nov. 20 meeting, cutting down the number of city committees from 10 to five, going from six primary committees to three and creating new committees, including one new group devoted solely to economic development.
“There are a couple of new committees and some of the committees have been put into the ground,” said councillor Colleen McKee.
A bylaw detailing the committee changes was read and passed by council on first reading.
The new groups include the Financial and Administrative Services Committee, which will be chaired by McKee and includes Colleen Arnold as vice-chair and Tim Babcock and Ken Pawlachuk. Babcock will chair the city Engineering Services Committee, along with vice-chair Pawlachuk, Karen MacKinnon and Guy Rideout.
Another new committee, the Social, Community and Recreation Services Committee, will be chaired by MacKinnon. Rideout will serve as vice-chair and Arnold and McKee have also been included.
The new Flin Flon Econo-mic Development Committee now contains Mayor Cal Huntley, McKee, Pawlachuk, chief administrative officer Glenna Daschuk, city treasurer Lyn Brown and economic development officer Eve O’Leary. Huntley, McKee and Daschuk will also represent Flin Flon on the Regional Economic Development Committee (REDC) along with representatives from Creighton and Denare Beach.
The fifth Flin Flon-only committee, the Committee of the Whole, encompasses all councillors and committees.
Huntley said the reorganization was his call, but it was done in concert with council.
“I did the restructuring, but I did it in consultation with council. We’ve gone from six primary committees to three. We want to see a little bit more focus on some actual results outside of the normal operations, because of the amalgamation. We think there will be a little bit better control there,” he said.
The new committees will include more members than their older counterparts and councillors will only participate in the committees they sit on. In his previous term, Huntley had opened committee meetings to all sitting councillors. Councillors will no longer attend other committee meetings, but will be able to hear committee reports and recommendations through the Committee of the Whole.
“I’m hoping it will be a bit more effective. We can review it in a year, and if it’s not working, we can do something different. We’re going to give this a shot and I think it focuses us a bit better moving forward on the activities that we have to get done,” he said.
The city also determined who will serve as deputy mayor through the next four years, with the position cycling through all six councillors and every councillor holding the post for an eight-month period.
Pawlachuk will serve as deputy mayor first, holding the position until June 2019. Rideout will be deputy mayor from July 2019 to February 2020, followed by Arnold, MacKinnon, Babcock and McKee.
Councillors will also serve as city representatives on several outside committees. Arnold will serve as the city’s representative on both the Blueberry Jam and Trout Festival committees. Babcock will do the same on the boards of the Flin Flon Bombers and the Flin Flon Public Library, while MacKinnon will represent the city at the Flin Flon and District Chamber of Commerce, where she also serves as the organization’s president.
McKee will be involved with the Lions Club Handi-Van and governance committee. Pawlachuk will work with both the Flin Flon Station Museum and Northern Manitoba Mining Academy boards and Rideout will serve with the Flin Flon and District Environmental Council.
