Report to/Rapport au:

 

Council / Conseil

 

10 March 2011 / le 10 mars 2011

 

Submitted by / Soumis par :  Selection Panel, Ottawa Board of Health,
and City Clerk and Solicitor / Jury de sélection, Conseil de santé d’Ottawa,
et Greffier et chef du contentieux

 

Contact/Personne-ressource: M. Rick O’Connor, City Clerk and Solicitor/

Greffier municipal et chef du contentieux

(613) 580-2424 x/poste 21215

Rick.OConnor@Ottawa.ca

 

City wide/À l’échelle de la ville

 

Ref N°: ACS2011-CMR-CCB-0028

 

 

SUBJECT:

OTTAWA BOARD OF HEALTH- SELECTION PANEL NOMINATIONS AND IMPLEMENT UPDATE

 

OBJET :

JURY DE SÉLECTION QUANT À LA NOMINATION DES MEMBRES DU CONSEIL DE SANTÉ ET LE POINT SUR LA MISE SUR PIED DU CONSEIL

 

REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

 

That Council:

 

1.      Approve the following appointments to the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit, also known as Ottawa Board of Health, all terms to be effective on the date of proclamation of the amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 and to expire with the term of Council:

Merrilee Fullerton

Tim Hutchinson

Atul Kapur

Marguarite Keeley

Gisèle Richer

Sharon Sholzberg-Gray (reserve 1)

Deborah Jordan (reserve 2)

 

2.      Approve the motion in Document 1 of this report and direct the City Clerk and Solicitor to forward this motion to the Province as the City's formal request for proclamation of the amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 that establishes the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit;

 

3.      Approve the amendments to the City of Ottawa’s Procedural By-law, Delegation of Authority By-law and Records Retention By-law as well as the Terms of Reference for the Community and Protective Services Committee and the Terms of Reference to any relevant Advisory Committee to reflect the establishment of Ottawa Board of Health’s By-laws, as outlined in this report;

 

4.      Delegate authority to the City Clerk and Solicitor to make any administrative changes to City by-laws as necessary to reflect amendments or procedures adopted by the Board of Health; and

 

5.      Direct that the City of Ottawa’s Procedural By-law, Delegation of Authority By-law and Records Retention By-law, as well as any other related By-laws, as amended by this report or by future Board of Health decisions, be included in the by-law listing of a subsequent Council meeting.

 

RECOMMANDATION DU RAPPORT

 

Que le Conseil :

 

1.        Approuve les nominations suivantes au Conseil de santé d’Ottawa, tous les mandats entrant en vigueur à la date de la proclamation des modifications à la Loi de 1999 sur la ville d’Ottawa et prenant fin au terme du mandat du Conseil:

Merrilee Fullerton

Tim Hutchinson

Atul Kapur

Marguarite Keeley

Gisèle Richer

Sharon Sholzberg-Gray (réserve 1)

Deborah Jordan (réserve 2)

 

2.        Approuve la motion du Document 1 du présent rapport et demande au greffier municipal et chef du contentieux de la transférer à la province de l’Ontario, celle-ci faisant office de demande officielle de la Ville pour la promulgation des modifications à la Loi de 1999 sur la Ville d’Ottawa qui établissent le Conseil de santé de la circonscription sanitaire de la Ville d’Ottawa;

 

3.        Approuve les modifications au règlement de procédure, au Règlement municipal sur la délégation de pouvoirs et au Règlement sur la conservation et le déclassement des dossiers de la Ville, ainsi que les changements au mandat du Comité des services communautaires et de protection et au mandat de tous les comités consultatifs concernés pour que ceux-ci concordent avec les règlements sur l’établissement du Conseil de santé d’Ottawa, comme le mentionne le présent rapport;

 

4.        Délègue au greffier municipal et chef du contentieux le pouvoir d’apporter s’il y a lieu des changements administratifs aux règlements municipaux pour que ceux-ci concordent avec les modifications ou les procédures adoptées par le Conseil de santé; et

 

5.        Demande que le règlement de procédure, le Règlement municipal sur la délégation de pouvoirs et le Règlement sur la conservation et le déclassement des dossiers de la Ville, ainsi que tout autre règlement connexe, tels que modifiés conformément au présent rapport ou à la suite d’une décision du Conseil de santé, soient inclus dans la liste des règlements à l’ordre du jour d’une prochaine réunion du Conseil municipal.

 

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

The Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit, also known as Ottawa Board of Health (Board), is responsible for upholding standards under the Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) and other legislation, and for establishing the overall objectives and priorities of the staff of Ottawa Public Health (OPH).

 

In May 2008, the Community and Protective Services Committee passed a motion directing Ottawa Public Health staff to consult with members of the public regarding the establishment of a new Board of Health governance model designed to improve stewardship of public health programs and ensure a continued ability to anticipate and respond to local community health needs (ACS2008-CPS-OPH-0006).

 

In October 2008, following public consultations, City Council approved, in principle, a proposed governance structure involving an 11-member Board of Health, consisting of five (5) public members and six (6) members of Council (ACS2008-CPS-OPH-0010).

 

The recommended governance structure was referred to City Council for consideration in conjunction with the City’s overall governance report and was subsequently approved by Council in June 2009.  At that meeting, the City Clerk and Solicitor was directed to proceed with an application to the Province of Ontario to amend the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 in order to provide the legislative authority necessary to implement the new Board of Health governance structure (ACS2009-CMR-CB-0043).

 

City staff conducted discussions with provincial representatives from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care regarding the best approach to implementing the necessary legislative changes.  Following this, in March 2010, the Ontario Minister of Finance tabled Bill 16 in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Bill 16 included amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 and established a new governance model for the Board of Health. 

 

Briefly, Bill 16 amended the City of Ottawa Act to:

 

On February 9, 2011, Council enacted By-law No. 2011-38 which establishes a Board of Health composed of eleven members, six of whom are members of City Council and five of whom are citizen representatives. This by-law will come into effect upon proclamation of the legislation.

 

On December 15, 2010, City Council appointed the following Members of Council to the Board of Health:

Councillor David Chernushenko;

Councillor Mathieu Fleury;

Councillor Jan Harder;

Councillor Katherine Hobbs;

Councillor Diane Holmes; and

Councillor Maria McRae.

 

With respect to citizen representation on the Board of Health, the City accepted applications from November 5 to November 26, 2010, employing the guidelines and requirements in the City’s Appointment Policy for citizen members of City of Ottawa Advisory Committees, Boards, Task Forces, Agencies and Commission. 

 

The Selection Panel for the citizen members consisted of Councillors Diane Holmes, Mark Taylor, Diane Deans, and Mayor Watson (ex officio).  They met in late January and early February 2011 to review applications and conduct interviews.

 

In order to facilitate the establishment of the Board of Health, City Council approved the following motion at its meeting of February 9, 2011:

 

WHEREAS there is a desire to have the full Transit Commission and the Board of Health in operation by April 2011; and

 

WHEREAS the February and March Committee and Council meeting schedule is crowded due to the budget, and it is more difficult for the Selection Panel schedules and Committee schedules to align in a timely fashion; and

 

WHEREAS there is only one Council meeting in March;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Selection Panels for the citizen members of the Transit Commission and the Board of Health report directly to City Council.

 

The selection process is now completed, and this report presents the recommendations of the Selection Panel to Council for approval.

 

In addition, as directed by Council, the City Clerk and Solicitor’s Office has been working with Ottawa Public Health staff to prepare the necessary foundation policies, procedures and supports for the Board of Health to begin its work under the new governance structure as soon as proclaimed. These preparations include: making ongoing service level arrangements; holding discussions with City departments; preparing supporting by-laws and policies for the new Board of Health; and ensuring sufficient support from staff to enable the Board of Health to fulfill its duties and obligations under the Health Protection and Promotion Act.

 

City staff has consulted with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing on the contents of this report and the details of the supports being put in place.

 

 

DISCUSSION

 

Responsibilities of the new Ottawa Board of Health

 

Under the Health Protection and Promotion Act, boards of health are responsible and accountable for overseeing all facets of programs and services required of public health units, including budget oversight and the establishment of work priorities and performance management of health unit leadership, sound risk management as well as attention to liability issues. With the enactment of the changes to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999, the Board of Health will be fully responsible to the Province for all of the responsibilities under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. It is the responsibility of the Board to uphold provincial legislation governing the mandate of the Board of Health under the Health Protection and Promotion Act and other statutes.

 

The Board of Health will also be responsible for fulfilling the requirements for fundamental public health programs and services established by the Ontario Public Health Standards and Protocols pursuant to Section 7 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act. These include: population health assessment; surveillance; research and knowledge exchange; program evaluation; chronic disease and injury prevention; family health; infectious disease;  environmental health; and emergency preparedness.

 

In addition to expectations, responsibilities and accountabilities outlined in the Health Protection and Promotion Act, other legislation and the Ontario Public Health Standards, boards of health can provide a policy framework within which its staff can define the health needs of the community and design programs and services to meet these needs.

 

The Board of Health will also be responsible for advising City Council on other issues related to health matters within its jurisdiction upon Council’s request. Such requests for advice would be made by means of a report or motion directed to the Board of Health. 

 

Formal Proclamation of the Amendments Establishing the Board of Health

 

Final preparations are now under way with respect to the establishment of the Board of Health. As an indication to the Province of Ontario that the City of Ottawa is prepared to implement the new Board of Health structure, Ottawa Public Health staff and the Board’s Interim Chair recommend that Council request the Lieutenant-Governor proclaim in force the amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 that establish the Board of Health. The proclamation is expected to take approximately one month from the time of the request. The Board’s inaugural meeting will be scheduled to coincide with the proclamation date of the amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999. Staff will be requesting the specific date of April 28, 2011 to accommodate the City’s current legislative calendar and to take into account a number of religious observances in April.

 

Organizational and Legal Requirements for the establishment of the Board of Health

 

Development of Board of Health By-laws, Policies, and Procedures

 

Over the past year, the City Clerk and Solicitor’s staff, in conjunction with Ottawa Public Health staff, has put in place the basic organizational policies and by-laws required for the Board of Health to operate when the legislation is proclaimed in force. The following  will be presented to the Board of Health for consideration at its inaugural meeting:

 

These policies will ensure that appropriate signing authorities are in place and that there is a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities within the new Board structure.

 

In addition, at its first meeting after proclamation the Board of Health will be presented with a series of recommendations from staff that would allow it to adopt relevant City policies and procedures until such time as it wishes to establish and adopt its own. For matters on which no formal policy exists, Ottawa Public Health staff will continue to operate as currently, until such time as Board-specific policies may be developed.

 

Finally, as part of the 2010-2014 Governance Report Council has approved a per diem of $200 for non-Council members of the Board. This will be accommodated within the Ottawa Public Health Budget.

 

Policies and Procedures for Shared Services

 

Staff has made arrangements for the continuance of current City administrative services (including Information Technology, Legal, Financial, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, labour relations services, as well as records retention services pursuant to the Personal Health Information Protection Act and Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act). At its inaugural meeting, it will be recommended that the Ottawa Board of Health formally adopt the City’s policies and procedures (such as the Responsible Computing Policy and the Purchasing By-law) for all shared services, and that the City Clerk and Solicitor continue to administer the Personal Health Information Protection Act and Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act requests on behalf of the Board of Health.

 

The formal adoption of this approach will be ready for the Board at its inaugural meeting.

 

Administrative Support for the Board of Health

 

Board support functions have been assigned to Ottawa Public Health staff, who has received training in key elements related to the board including parliamentary procedures. Procedures, policies and mechanisms for tracking reports for Council, committees, and boards have been developed. Ottawa Public Health has also developed internal procedures to facilitate reporting to the Board of Health, which include an approval process for Board of Health reports and an agenda review procedure.

 

Next Steps for the Board of Health

 

Orientation for Board of Health Members

 

Staff have prepared a full day orientation session for Board of Health members in late March 2011. A second orientation day is also planned for board members who are not able to attend the first. These sessions will include an overview of the work and role of Ottawa Public Health, the Health Protection and Promotion Act, Ontario Public Health Standards and Ontario Public Health Organizational Standards; as well as reports on Ottawa Public Health programming, emergency planning, the health status of Ottawa residents and strategic directions for Ottawa Public Health. In addition, staff from the City Clerk and Solicitor’s office will provide Board members with an overview of required legal information including the role, powers and obligations of the Board and municipal conflict of interest.

 

Board of Health Meetings

 

As previously mentioned, it is expected that the inaugural meeting of the Board of Health will take place to coincide with the proclamation of the amending legislation, ideally on April 28, 2011. At the meeting, citizen members of the Board of Health will be sworn in and a Chair elected for the 2011-2014 term. The new Chair will preside over the rest of the meeting, including the election of the Vice-Chair, the appointment of the auditor and Secretary to the Board of Health, as well as approval of the Board of Health policies, by-laws and procedures referred to earlier in this report.

 

As discussed in the 2010-2014 Governance report adopted by Council in December 2010, the Board is expected to meet, when necessary, on the third Monday of the month in which the meeting is held to avoid conflict with other municipal boards, commissions or City Council and its committees. Ottawa Public Health staff, in consultation with City Clerk and Solicitor’s office, has begun drafting agendas for the first three meetings to ensure a smooth transition.

 

Next Steps for the City of Ottawa

 

It is recommended that Council approve amendments to the City’s Procedural By-law, Delegation of Authority By-law and Records Retention By-law to reflect the establishment of Ottawa Board of Health’s by-laws and to ensure that the reporting relationship between Ottawa Public Health, the Board of Health and City Council in the areas of procedures, signing authorities and delegations is clearly defined.

 

Recommended Changes to the Procedural By-law

 

The Council Governance Review 2010-2014 report (ACS2010-CMR-CCB-0106), adopted by City Council on December 8, 2010, notes that Ottawa’s Board of Health was established such that:

“In addition to any responsibilities that the Board has under the HPPA, the Board shall make recommendations to the City on any issues within the City’s jurisdiction that involve public health consideration upon request by the City and make an annual report to the City.”

 

The specific procedural mechanisms to enable the Board of Health to make recommendations to the City were not established as part of the Governance Review. Therefore, City Clerk and Solicitor’s staff, in conjunction with Ottawa Public Health staff, recommend: 

 

Where the Board of Health has been given standing by the Chair or the Mayor, staff will provide a link to any relevant documents approved by the Board of Health from the Agenda and Minutes section of ottawa.ca.

 

As well, the Governance Review report incorporated a new section in the Procedural By-law that states that when the Emergency Operations Centre has been activated while Council is in session, senior staff is authorized to provide an immediate briefing to Council. This briefing takes precedence over other agenda items and does not require waiver of the Rules of Procedure.

 

From time to time, the Board of Health may need to brief Council in the event of a public health emergency, enhanced response and communicable disease outbreaks, particularly where City resources are required as part of the response. It is therefore recommended that the Procedural By-law be amended to allow Council or the relevant Standing Committee/Transit Commission to be briefed in the event of a public health emergency, enhanced response and communicable disease outbreaks with the consent of the Mayor or the Chair, without requiring waiver of the Rules of Procedure. Such items may take precedence over regular business on the Agenda with the consent of the Mayor or the Chair.

 

Recommended Changes to Terms of Reference

 

Although City Council is currently the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa, the Community and Protective Services Committee acts as a Sub-Committee of the Board of Health for the purposes of making recommendations to Council as the Board of Health on public health matters and hearing public delegations on those matters. In anticipation of the establishment of the new Board of Health, the Terms of Reference were drafted and adopted on the understanding that the sections related to the Board of Health will be removed once the new Board of Health is established. Adoption of this report will enable the formal amendments to the Terms of Reference for the Community and Protective Services Committee removing references to the Board of Health and the public health unit to occur.

 

As well, several of the City’s Advisory Committees contain references to providing advice to Council on areas within the public health mandate in Council’s capacity as the Board of Health. When the new Board of Health is proclaimed, those references in Advisory Committee’s Terms of Reference will need to be removed as Advisory Committees only have a mandate to provide advice to City Council. They have no mandate to provide advice to an independent Board of Health. It is anticipated that this will have the most significant impact on the Terms of Reference for the Health and Social Services Advisory Committee. As staff will be undertaking a review of the Advisory Committees as part of the upcoming review of Citizen Engagement, and so do not recommend any changes to the structure of this particular Advisory Committee at this time beyond the necessary amendments to the Terms of Reference.

 

 

Recommended Changes to other City By-laws

 

As indicated above, the Board will establish some of its own by-laws and policies, in addition to adopting existing City of Ottawa by-laws, policies and procedures.

 

Once this is done, commensurate changes will need to be made to City by-laws. To facilitate this administrative exercise, it is recommended that Council delegate to the City Clerk and Solicitor the ability to make changes to City by-laws, when necessary, to remove references to Ottawa Public Health or the Board.

 

As staff is aware that the Board will be adopting its own Delegation of Authority and Records Retention by-laws, the corresponding City by-laws will be the first to be amended under this delegation, if approved.

 

 

CONSULTATION

 

With respect to the Board appointments, the Selection Panel was composed of Councillor Diane Holmes, Mark Taylor, Diane Deans, and Mayor Watson (ex officio).  They met in late January and early February 2011 to review applications, conduct interviews and put forward recommendations.

 

Staff of Ottawa Public Health has been in continual discussions with staff in the City Clerk and Solicitor’s Office, Human Resources, Supply Management, Information Technology and the Finance Department with respect to establishment of the Board. In addition, consultations have also taken place with other staff from other Boards of Health, as well as other boards within the City of Ottawa.

 

 

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

N/A

 

 

LEGAL/RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

 

There are no legal/risk management implications associated with this report.

 

 

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

 

Document 1-   Motion to proclaim the amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 that establish the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit.

Document 2 -  Applications of recommended members (on file with the City Clerk and Solicitor)

 

 

DISPOSITION

 

City Clerk and Solicitor will notify all applicants upon approval by City Council.

 


Document 1

 

Motion to proclaim the amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 that establish the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit

 

 

WHEREAS the City of Ottawa has selected the five citizen members of the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit and all 11 members of the Board are in place; and

 

WHEREAS the City Clerk and Solicitor's Office and Ottawa Public Health have worked to develop the necessary by-laws, policies and procedures to enable the proper functioning of the Board; and

 

WHEREAS the City of Ottawa is confident that the Board has the appropriate supports in place to begin fulfilling its mandate;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Council formally request the Province of Ontario proclaim in force the amendments to the City of Ottawa Act, 1999 that establish the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa Health Unit; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Council direct the City Clerk and Solicitor to forward this request to the Province of Ontario as soon as possible following the adoption of this resolution.