Niagara Region weighs diverse opinions on diversity, equity and inclusion committee
Corporate services committee recommends sticking with the current structure for advice
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There were bound to be some growing pains when Niagara Regioncouncil established its first diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) advisory committee last term.
Wednesday, the Region’s corporate services committee approved staff recommendations for improvement process before the municipality establishes this term’s committee.
The most pressing issue was whether council needs to divide the advisory committee in two: one for anti-racism issues and a second for LGBTQ issues.
Saleh Waziruddin of Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association made the case for separate committees.
“A combined DEI committee can’t do all the work needed by anti-racism and 2SLGBTQQIA+ committees,” Waziruddin said. “The committee will have people representing all kinds of diversity and not just experience with racism or 2SLGBTQQIA+ issues.
“This means, for example, that anti-racism recommendations will need to be first approved by people who don’t have the lived experience before they even get to council. It’s an unnecessary barrier to getting the vital advice you’re seeking.”
However, the staff report survey of 14 Ontario municipalities with current or planned DEI advisory committees showed only one municipality, Peel, has the staff to serve multiple diversity-related advisory committees.
The rest have one combined diversity-related advisory committee with subcommittee structures, called action tables, to delve more deeply into pressing concerns.
“The municipality which has multiple committees outside of Niagara has 10 full-time equivalent staff in their DEI office, compared to two DEI related full-time equivalent staff at Niagara Region,” the report said.
The second issue the corporate services committee debated was who would best serve as committee chair — a councillor or a citizen member.
St. Catharines Coun. Laura Ip said she initially believed a citizen should take the chair’s role.
“Based on our procedural bylaw alone, I changed my mind,” Ip said. “The chair manages the meeting, so I felt that we were losing the input of a community member by making them chair.”
Waziruddin said a community member should serve as the chair.
“The work of committees will still come to council for your approval, but the needed leadership will be missing,” Waziruddin said. “Representation does matter, and the way to do that is with a resident as chair.”
Sabrina Hill, a St. Catharines resident, was chair of the DEI advisory committee for part of the last term. She said advisory committees are something Niagara needs.
“From my understanding, the Region used a complex matrix to score each potential member for their various committees and recruited some of the very best residents from across Niagara, and in the end those people did good work,” Hill said.
“Through adversity we found incentive. Through research we found reason, and through diversity we found compromise.
“Speaking from personal experience in the short time I served on two advisory committees in the last term, despite the roadblocks of a pandemic and a shortened term, we as a group of diverse and enthusiastic residents managed to accomplish a lot.”
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