The Peace River Regional District board elected unanimously to eliminate four committees, in a move Leonard Hiebert, the board’s chair, said prioritized efficiency.
Regional board members unanimously voted to nix the Regional Parks Committee, the Emergency Executive Committee, the Health Care Scholarship Committee, and the Broadband Internet and Mobility Committee during their August 14 regular meeting.
“(The dissolved committees) were based on efficiencies and how we can streamline admin so we’re not duplicating something,” said Hiebert.
The region’s staff said they recommended the elimination of the four committees to, “streamline operations and make the handling of large quantities of information more efficient,” in their report for the board.
These committees were created over the span of 15 years, and despite having served their purposes, they were no longer being used.
“One committee only met once in two years,” the district board’s chair said.
Moving forward, issues that would have been tackled by the committees will be addressed during regular council meetings – Hiebert said the impact of this change may extend some meetings, but it will vary.
“It could be a normal board meeting, or it could extend it – it’ll depend on what we’re dealing with agenda-to-agenda, but the possibility of having a full day is there now,” he said.
Issues managed by the former Health Care Scholarship Committee were already shifted to the regional board’s plate when regional board members were unsatisfied with the results of their commitment, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2016.
The committee was established to try to recruit healthcare workers to move to the Peace, but has been suspended since April, and the scholarship programs were formally cancelled by the board in May.
“(The Healthcare Scholarship) Committee we bounced around what we’re going to do moving forward,” said Hiebert, explaining why the funding was revoked. “When (the province) gives bonuses that are a thousand times higher than what we’re offering, you’re kind of coming up against an amount that you can’t afford – so we put that one on hold.”
Hiebert reassured the other committees operated by the regional district that they are safe, for now.
