The relationship between city staff and Heritage Guelph is one of “underlying conflict and mistrust,” says Coun. Cathy Downer, who hopes an independent facilitator can help mend fences.
She intends to bring forward a motion to hire one during Monday’s council meeting.
“In discussions over the last couple weeks with various people involved in the heritage file, from staff to committee to the mayor, I thought that we needed an independent facilitator to work with Heritage Guelph and staff to develop a more collaborative relationship than what we’re seeing right now,” she said of what inspired her motion.
“I think this has been brewing for a while.”
Heritage Guelph is an advisory committee to council, reviewing and offering its opinion on a variety of heritage issues within the city, including demolition permits and recommendations about properties being considered for protection under the Ontario Heritage Act.
Committee motions are presented to city council to be contemplated in decision-making.
The staff position and Heritage Guelph's stance don’t always align. Take, for example, the cultural heritage action plan, which is also on the agenda for Monday’s council meeting.
Meeting as the committee of the whole earlier this month, council approved the plan, as recommended by city staff. That decision is up for potential ratification on Monday.
During its December meeting, Heritage Guelph unanimously rejected the plan and called for major overhauls. Committee members expressed concerns with the prioritization of cultural heritage landscapes – areas of historical significance – to be considered for protection, as well as the lack of Indigenous inclusion.
While city staff prioritized those areas based on building department permits and the risk of loss, Heritage Guelph members feel it should be based on factors such as value to the community, significance to the city, age of neighbourhood and the history of those landscapes.
During the recent committee of the whole discussion, Heritage Guelph chair P. Brian Skerrett noted his group wasn’t presented with the entire draft document to review in 2019 and some members questioned whether their input was considered in preparing the final version. The staff report to council says it was.
The final plan was initially presented to council in October but a decision was deferred to this month, in part, to get Heritage Guelph’s input on the latest version. However, Melissa Aldunate, the city’s manager of policy planning and urban design planning, told GuelphToday in early November that the committee fulfilled its terms of reference by commenting on the earlier draft and wouldn’t be asked to review the latest version.
Subsequently, Krista Walkey, the city’s general manager of planning and building services attended an Heritage Guelph meeting and invited members to comment on the final draft and clarify that it can discuss information included on its agenda (the CHAP was listed as information for the Oct. 26 meeting).
Last week Walkey told the committee a facilitator may be brought in to review the committee’s mandate and terms of reference. She later clarified to GuelphToday that the facilitator would be a city staff member from another department.
“While I appreciate that they’re going to go through the terms of reference and they’re going to have a facilitator from a different department, I think that’s positive, but those types of exercises are difficult when there’s this underlying conflict and mistrust underneath all that,” said Downer.
“I think it’s really important that their relationship be collaborative and obviously that’s not what’s happening right now.”
In November, council unanimously approved a motion that will see advisory committee policies reviewed at least every four years. That review, Downer said, is expected to begin in March.
Asked whether there should be a city councillor on Heritage Guelph, Downer said, “That’s maybe something we can look at, if council and the committee thought that might be valuable.”
There are currently no council members on HG, though that’s something that has happened in the past. Downer sat on the committee prior to leaving council in 2006.
Some other committees, such as the Guelph Public Library Board, include sitting city councillors.
“Where sometimes it’s helpful is in that communication – rather than just seeing a motion, there’s somebody at the table who can further expand on the rationale as well,” said Downer. “We have staff that do that, but sometimes it’s helpful to have someone at the table as well.”
