The City of Hamilton has numerous sub-committees and advisory groups that provide advice to staff, who then provide feedback to Council.
City staff wish to scale back the number of citizens’ committees, and among the recommendations is to merge the Advisory Committee for Immigrants and Refugees, the Committee Against Racism, Advisory Committee for Immigrants and Refugees, the Hamilton Status of Women, and Hamilton Aboriginal Advisory Committee into a new mega committee called the Diversity, Race Relations and Equity Advisory Committee.
The new committee will be limited to nine members, with each of the groups getting one representative and then another three citizens at large being appointed by Council.
The recommendation is because staff state it is an administrative burden to manage so many sub-committees at City Hall. (Hamilton has only five full committees, whereas other City have more numerous committees)
So, City Hall’s going to diminish the committees designed to address and prevent discrimination to one committee.
It doesn’t look like the idea will fly at Wednesday’s General Issues Committee, thankfully.