Quesnel Council cleans house

Courtesy of the City of Quesnel:

Quesnel Council has repealed 34 outdated bylaws and a number of policies as an initial step in its comprehensive review of all of the City’s bylaws and policies.

“Updating the City’s bylaws and policies to ensure they are current and reflect today’s laws and best practices is a strategic objective for Council,” said Councillor Ron Paull, Chair of Council’s Policy and Bylaw Committee (PABCOM). “This house cleaning reflects Council’s intent to modernize our decision-making processes and ensure we can effectively manage our way through this economic transition.”

Along with repealing outdated bylaws, PABCOM is reviewing all of the City’s remaining bylaws and policies to ensure they are up-to-date, consistent with Council’s strategic plan and budget, and they reflect best practices. For example, based on a PABCOM recommendation, Council repealed a policy that gave it discretionary spending authority over an account called “Council Projects” as this account was removed from the 2015 budget. Council’s Finance Committee now reviews all spending requests and makes recommendations to Council before any financial decisions are made.

“During its budget process Council reduced its total travel budget by 34%, so we recommended that Council reduce itsper diem from $95/day to $50/day when an overnight stay is not required,” said Councillor Brisco, a member of PABCOM. “This change reflects our desire to be fiscally prudent and it will also stretch our limited training and travel dollars further.”

Mayor Bob Simpson said he was very pleased with the progress that Council’s new standing committees have made in such a short period of time: “Our Finance Committee recommended a budget that puts the City on the path of financial sustainability and now our Policy and Bylaw Committee is making significant progress toward updating our legislative tools so we will have modern governance tools to help us achieve our strategic goals. I appreciate the many hours of hard work Councillors are putting into our new Committee structure.”