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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-11Page | 1 Clarington Diversity Advisory Committee Thursday, January 11, 2024 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Virtual Via Microsoft Teams If this information is required in an alternate format, please contact the IDEA Officer at 905-623-3379 ext 2563 Present: Councillor Granville Anderson Pranay Gunti Ron Hooper Tenzin Shomar Joe Solway Aaliyah Ruddock Lauren Reyes-Grange Also Present: Pinder DaSilva – Clarington, IDEA Officer Regrets: Dione Valentine Yasmin Shafi Absent: Meera McDonald Andaleeb Shafi The meeting was called to order at 7:03 pm. 1. Land Acknowledgement Statement Tenzin shared the Land Acknowledgement Statement. 2. Annual Selection of Chair and Vice Chair as per current TOR Nomination for Chair position: • Tenzin passed over role of Election Chair to Cllr Anderson for Election process. • Nomination opened for position of Chair, Diversity Advisory Committee • Ron nominated Tenzin; no other nomination for Chair. • Tenzin accepted nomination and was voted in as Chair Position of Chair of meeting passed back onto Tenzin to facilitate the Vice-Chair election. Nomination for Vice-Chair • Ron nominated Pranay; Pranay accepted the nomination • Lauren nominates Dionne but she was not at the meeting • Lauren motioned to defer the election of vice chair to next meeting in order to have Dionne attend; 2nd Aaliyah; Carried 3. Declarations of Interest Page | 2 No declarations of interest declared by members. 4. Review and Approval of Agenda One addition to agenda brought forward by Pinder under staff update – OTF Grant Pranay motioned that the agenda for the January 11, 2024 meeting be approved including addition; 2nd by Joe Carried 5. Review and approval of previous meeting minutes Aaliyaa motioned to approve December 14, 2023 minutes; 2nd by Lauren. Carried 6. Guest Speakers - Todd Brown (Monteith Brown Cons.) – Parks, Rec, & Culture Master Plan Looking to get feedback from committee on the long term plan on setting up indoor and outdoor facilities, libraries and arts/culture programs and how inclusive is our community in meeting the parks, recreation, library, and culture needs of the community the municipality serves? Part of process was a community consultation which is the stage they are at now. Already held several pop-up sessions at various community centres. Online community survey – had tremendous response around what the community sees as important to them. Coming weeks will meet with other Committees of Council and Municipal staff. Questions Are there groups who’s the needs are not being met? • Track and field facility • Cricket pitches • Full size indoor soccer facility (already under way with South Bowmanville Rec build) • Upgrading of change rooms at current facilities especially the swimming pool areas • Pickleball facilities • Multi-purpose courts and facilities that can be used all year round for various sports • Update the squash courts • Convert the 3 new outdoor ice pads that are being built into multi-purpose spaces in the spring/summer/fall Any barriers that prevent people from participating? • Affordability, feeling/being welcomed etc. • Transit issues - Getting capital infrastructure in place is necessary but if people can’t make it there because they don’t have a car then it’s a problem • Making it more affordable and accessible for residents • Trail connectivity that could connect the various facilities together to make it easier for individuals without cars to move around • Connect with Abilities Centre and Walker Sports and Abilities Centre to look at design of facilities Page | 3 Anything else from a diversity point of view that they should take into consideration? • Opportunity to pay homage to the Indigenous communities that were here prior to us when developing parks and trails Tenzin thanked Todd on behalf of the committee for attending and taking the feedback. 7. Councillor Updates – Councillor Anderson Budget passed in December The Toronto kick off for Black History Month is being hosted by Ontario Black History Society on January 28 from 12-4:30 pm at Exhibition Place. Last year Erica and a committee member attended. Pinder will send out an email to committee members and see who is interested in coming with her. The Region of Durham is hosting an event on Feb 1st in Pickering at Chestnut Hill Recreation Centre from 6-8 pm. Town of Ajax’s event is in the evening of the 3rd week in February Clarington’s Black Vendor Village – February 24th from 10-5 pm @ Rickard B. Arena Quorum issues – the Council members are aware of the issues with reaching quorum. Need to look at how we can increase quorum. One option is to add members and keep quorum the same. Will need to bring forward some ideas to Council to address the quorum issues. Decision made to delay the quorum discussion until the next meeting once Pinder has spoken to Clerks staff to discuss different options. 8. Community Updates Pinder provided the following updates: Diversity Celebration Calendar Black History Month Planning OTF Grant The Municipality partnered with Library, Museums and Archives to submit a proposal to Canadian Race Relations Foundation for a youth led event focused on anti -racism and anti-discrimination. Will find towards end of March if we were successful. A calendar of IDEA celebrations/recognition events has been completed. The document is an internal document that will be used to track what celebrations/recognition events are highlighted in social media, when lunch and learns will be offered and when more formal traini ng for staff will be set up for the various events. Pinder can share the calendar so the committee knows what events will be part of the Communication strategy. The Committee members discussed whether certain statements from the Mayor should include mention of the Diversity Advisory Commmittee – e.g. “on the behalf of the DAC” committee Some members felt it would be a good addition while others indicated that doing so probably fell outside of the DAC’s responsibilities – DAC’s role is not to speak on behalf of the municipality; it is the Mayor’s role to speak on behalf of the Municipality as a whole, not the c ommittee. Page | 4 Committee interested in working with Communication to look at how we can increase the presence of diversity and the work the committee is doing through social media. Last year there was conversation about connecting Comm’s with Lauren to help conduct a social media audit but not sure what happened with that. Editorial calendar for their social media within the content that they are already posting. The ABR committee put together a whole spreadsheet with content but not sure who it is sitting with right now Pinder will discuss further with Comm’s and present information back at the next committee meeting. Black History Month planning is moving forward with the main event being the Black Vendor Village scheduled for February 24 from 10-5 pm at Rickard B. Arena; the planning committee was formed and met earlier this week to start the planning. There is a staff lunch and learn also scheduled with Dr. Andrew Thomas. 9. DRPS Safety Committee Update – Dec 6th meeting was pushed out to January so there were no updates to provide. 10. Work Plan Review & Upcoming Projects Student bursaries are a priority. The committee is meeting at the end of January and will have more of an update at the February meeting. Pinder is meeting with the finance dept and Mayor’s office to gather more information on the logistics of putting a bursary program together and will bring this information to the working group. 11. Anti-Black Racism Task Force Name Change Pranay motioned to defer items 11-13 to the next meeting in order to give them more time; Ron Carried Pinder will move agenda items 11-13 to the front of the February agenda in order to ensure the items get discussed. 12. Anti-Black Racism Task Force Terms of Reference Moved to next meeting 13. Other Business Review Oath of Office: Move to next meeting Future agenda items – Student Bursary group will meet in the next couple of weeks. Motion to adjourn – Pranay, Cllr Anderson Carried Next meeting: February 15, 2024