EMPOWERING VOICES IN NIAGARA: The Role of Advisory Committees

Below is a speech I delivered to the Council for the Regional Municipality of Niagara

Good morning and thank you for furnishing me with an opportunity to speak to all of you this morning. It’s nice to see some familiar and friendly faces before me today.

When municipalities like Niagara Region create citizen-driven advisory committees, such as the Women’s Advisory Committee and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee, what they are doing, in essence, is seeking out and soliciting valuable input from some of the more historically and institutionally marginalized and equity-seeking communities from all across our peninsula.

When the Region assembled these worthwhile and admirable committees, what the last term of Council was actually implementing was the creation of a place and time, or more precisely, a space where people with different lived experiences and from diverse socio-economic, cultural, and geographical communities could come together and debate policy; share their experiences; and steer the direction of the Region through new, bold, and beneficial initiatives. Ultimately they created an inclusive, responsive and effective polity with a shared, unified goal of improving the lives and outcomes of all of the residents of Niagara.

These commendable exercises in inclusivity represent more than just some ‘inconsequential notion of data collection and user feedback;’ through the formation of these committees, the Region prompted a fundamental shift in its culture and how it was going to do business going forward. 

These new promises symbolized acceptance, pride, hope, and opportunity for so many across the peninsula.

In a speech I gave at the official unveiling of the Pride crosswalk last June, I thanked those who helped make that happen; for letting the next young version of me out there know that their existence is acknowledged; accepted. My message then and now was and is one of love and hope. 

I like to think the last term of Council, through the creation of these progressive committees, was one of the same. 

The Region took meaningful steps to acknowledge the intergenerational traumas many in our communities have faced and continue to face every day in every community across Niagara.

These committees have and should represent more than just partisan talking points. These advisory committees act as an incubator of ideas where residents freely and safely offer their experiences and recommendations on harm reduction by expurgating oppressive policies and practices.

While all of the members of the three committees I served on last term of Council came from different backgrounds and lived experiences, we all came together to accomplish different goals, all with common unifying themes of cooperation, effectiveness, and transparency.

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 all across our region. And in the end, those that ended up on these committees did – good – work.

Through adversity, we found incentive.
Through research, we found reason.
And through diversity, we found compromise.

Speaking from personal experience, in the short time that I served on two of these advisory committees in the last term, despite the roadblocks of a pandemic and shortened term, we, as a group of diverse and enthusiastic residents, managed to accomplish a lot.

Through the Women’s Advisory Committee, several amazing women came together to ‘advocate for crucial gender-based issue resolutions to genuine inaccessibility stemming from Regional policies, priorities, and past decisions.’

At the close of the term of council, this group of leading women, all of whom rebudgeted time away from work and their families, served their communities, city, and region admirably and made Niagara as a whole a better place.

While I served on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee, we had an even more abbreviated term to ‘improve diversity, equity and inclusion in Niagara.’

If I may be so bold as to plagiarize from the Region’s website, “the goal of the [DEIAC] is to address the negative impacts of bias and discrimination on quality of life, safety, health and inclusion. [The DEIAC] will work with staff and the community to make Niagara more welcoming, diverse and inclusive.” That’s a monumental task.

And despite being presented with this in the first iteration, I think we provided considerable advice and recommendations to Regional Council and staff.

In my short tenure as Chair of this significant committee, I was able to frequently interface with legislative and support staff for the Region.

What comes next is going to, at first pass, read as an audition for round two for Chairship of the DEIAC, but I can assure you it isn’t. That part of my life is now behind me, but I ask for your indulgence for a moment.

As one does, after my term ended as Chair, I reflected back on my brief tenure. 

I looked back and asked myself ‘what I could have done differently.’ The first thing that comes to mind is that, procedurally, I could have managed the committee meetings more in line with the rules of authority, precision, and confidence.

Really though, what keeps me up occasionally is that I didn’t direct the agenda with a little more charge. Or, more plainly, I didn’t encourage enough of the other members to put their concerns front and centre of the agenda at each meeting.

I believe I failed as Chair because I don’t think I did enough to promote more voices; I wish I had emphatically encouraged other committee members to recount their unique and valuable lived experiences.

While some of these deficits as a Chair could be laid at the altar of inexperience and a deficiency of time, I will always see it as a missed opportunity.

My concern, and ultimately what has me speaking before you today, are some of the changes to the DEIAC. Specifically, some of the changes being proposed to the composition of the committee.

While the updated terms of reference before you correctly state that realigning the Chairship to be one of the two elected Regional Councillors is “consistent with the approach of other Regional advisory committees,” the report doesn’t include the widely reported dissatisfaction with this arrangement. Locally and across the province, we’ve seen the results when a municipality attempts to direct and/or ignore the advice and education opportunities about crucial issues from marginalized communities.

While there were some small gains in the last municipal elections for parity and other critical equity indicators, Niagara largely remains governed by a privileged class. 

With the vital mission before the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee of creating a plan to “improve diversity, equity and inclusion in Niagara,” the Region must hold the position of Chair open to a voice (or voices) from exceptional residents who don’t share in some of the same privilege.

If the Region is serious about ‘addressing the negative impacts of bias and discrimination on quality of life, safety, health and inclusion,’ what purpose does it serve to put someone from the Region as Chair?

Now, that isn’t to say that a Regional Councillor can’t come from an equity-seeking group or that they can’t be a fierce ally for marginalized groups. 

But, by denying the opportunity of leadership to the voiceless, is the Region not once again institutionally and unnecessarily denying accessibility and ownership to 

a Muslim voice; 
a queer voice; 
a black voice; 
an Indigenous voice?

I hope the fine men and women that comprise the Corporate Services Committee will unite around allyship and provide leadership allowances to those that conventionally find themselves depreciated and denied the exigencies of opportunity.

I failed as a Chair because I didn’t create the space for those voices. I hope the Region, this Committee, and this Council won’t repeat my mistakes.

Thank you.

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