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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-11-14Clarington If this information is required in an alternate format, please contact the IDEA Officer at 905-623-3379 ext. 2563 Clarington Diversity Advisory Committee Minutes for November 14, 2024 Microsoft Teams Need help? Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 241 379 956 663 Passcode: Crdbfd Dial in by phone +1 289-274-8255, 384371305# Present: Tenzin Shomar Pranay Gunti Lauren Reyes -Grange (joined 7:25 pm) Joe Solway Bev Neblett Vincent Wong Rochelle Thomas Dione Valentine Ron Hooper (joined at 7:39 pm) Regrets: Councillor Anderson Also Present: Pinder DaSilva, Municipality of Clarington; Donnalee Smith, CLMA 1. Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 7:01 pm 2. Land Acknowledgement Land Acknowledgement read byT. Shomar The Municipality of Clarington is situated within the traditional and treaty territory of the Mississaugas and Chippewas of the Anishinabeg, known today as the Williams Treaties First Nations. Our work on these lands acknowledges their that resilience and their Longstanding contributions to the area now known as the Municipality of Clarington. 3. Declaration of Interest There were no disclosures of interest stated at this meeting. Clarington Diversity - 2 - November 14, 2024 Advisory Committee 4. Review and approval of Agenda Moved by R. Thomas; seconded by B. Neblett That the agenda for November 14, 2024, be approved with the following additions: Social Media Working Group under Other Business Carried 5. Adoption of Minutes Moved by B. Neblett, seconded by R. Thomas That the meeting minutes for October 17, 2024, be approved with the following wording change, under the Other Business - Parks, Recreation, and Culture Master Plan, that highlights the commitment staff have already made. "Committee members asked P. Gunti for further clarification on what the community is wanting given that staff have already committed to prioritized finding an appropriate Location for a brand-new cricket pitch and this is already a recommendation in the PRC Master Plan." Carried 6. Review of committee mandate & Terms of Reference Committee discussed the appropriateness of putting forward a Motion to Council asking the Municipalityto prioritize a cricket pitch in the PRCMP. The Motion went to Council, but it was not approved because Council and Staff have already outlined commitment for a cricket pitch. Committee members concerned that the reputation of CDAC was jeopardized with the Motion as Council did question why CDAC was putting forward such a motion. P. Gunti requested clarification on whether the CDAC was only going to put motions forward that would be approved by Council. T. Shomar clarified that is not what he was stating but that in the future it would be beneficial for members to share motions with P. DaSilva and T. Shomar ahead of the meeting to ensure that it is not anything counter productive to what the committee, staff and council are already doing. Discussed that motions do not have to be the only way CDAC can get answers to issues. Committee is permitted to ask questions of P. DaSilva to see if she can get answers, organizations can do a delegation to Council or write/email Council. Clarington Diversity - 3 - November 14, 2024 Advisory Committee P. Gunti shared that he decided to ask the committee to put a motion forward as the cricket pitch did not appear to be a priority at previous CDAC meetings when the issue was discussed and there were no specific timelines for the cricket pitch given in the PRCMP. Stated he did not feel that the credibility or integrity of the committee was jeopardized by the motion. 7. Committee Recruitment Update P. DaSilva shared that Council will be appointing new terms at the December Council meeting. There were no youth applications submitted so willworkwith Clerks dept in Januaryto re -post and do more targeted recruitment (high schools, post -secondary, youth specific organizations etc.). 8. CDAC Workplan Update Student Bursary - review of 2023 - 2024 process + next steps Reviewing the bursary process that was implemented last year and determine what the next iteration should look like. P. DaSilva will coordinate a time for the working group to meet some time in January 2025 once Council has appointed the new CDAC members. Youth Civic Engagement Working group met on October 31 ", included P. DaSilva, R. Thomas, T. Shomar, Councillor Woo and Clarington staff (J. O'Meara and C. MacDonald). Started the discussion on what a civic engagement program could look like, including a mock city hall program and doing this in conjunction with the grade 10 civics class. Everyone on the call is interested in figuring out how to move it forward. P. DaSilva has reached out to the high school teachers across Clarington but has only heard from one school so far. Will reach back out to the schools R. Thomas also provided some great resources from Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) resources that can be utilized to solidify the logistics of such an initiative. Diversifying community events Working group met and shared ideas on how they would like to increase diversity at Clarington events, including hosting a one -day multicultural food and/or entertainment festival. P. DaSilva shared that there is a new Director being hired for Community Services so no decisions have been made on what community events will be implemented for next year. P. DaSilva will continue to reach out to Community Services to ensure this type of event stays relevant and part of the planning discussion. Clarington Diversity - 4 - November 14, 2024 Advisory Committee R. Hooper also shared that all the BIA events are open to different businesses putting in their booths and highly encouraged the committee members to continue to share the BIA events within and across different communities. 9. Council Update Councillor Anderson was not available to attend the meeting, so no Council update provided. 10. Community Participation Update AMO Healthy Democracy Conference T. Shomar, P. Gunti and P. DaSilva attended the Healthy Democracy conference hosted by Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). Presenters discussed many different issues and initiatives. AMO shared the results of a research project that looked into the experience of raciahzed and equity deserving electoral candidates which included their experiences of racism and discrimination that prevents diverse individuals from continuing their interest in Municipal elections. Also presented data points and stats of representation of council across Ontario. Some organizations presented their election school initiatives that focus on teaching new candidates how to run an election (completing paperwork, setting up a website, rules around fundraising, how to canvas for support, media management etc.). Separate Healthy Democracy sessions specific to youth which included finding different ways to engage youth in democracy and civic engagement. Had a few young mayors who presented on the importance of engagement. DEI Symposium Hosted by the Region at Regional Council Chambers. Had approximately 50 individuals from Municipal DEI committees, DRPS and other community organizations attended. Was great discussion that included different municipalities presenting their workplans which resulted in themes being identified. Region is now looking at how we can all continue to collaborate and work together in the future. 11. Community Updates Transgender Week of Awareness —flag raising will take place on Nov 15th at 10 am in Veteran's Square. P. DaSilva encouraged everyone to come out and support the flag raising, if they are available. Clarington Diversity - 5 - November 14, 2024 Advisory Committee P. DaSilva shared that the Communication team is hosting a photo shoot on December 6t" at Diane Hamre that is open to committee members. They are looking to have diverse individuals (race, culture, age, family dynamics etc.) represented. Photos will be used in Clarington social media. P. DaSilva will send out an invitation and registration form. P. DaSilva shared that earlier this year Canada unveiled its' multi -year Anti -Racism Framework. The development of the framework included consultations with interest and equity -deserving groups across Canada to help inform how anti -racism was defined. At the time, there was no inclusion of Anti -Palestine racism. There has been ongoing conversation with the Canadian gov't which may result in Anti -Palestine Racism being included in the definition. 12. CABRTF Update D. Valentine shared that the HR working group met with the Clarington HR committee. The plan for the development of a formal HR strategy was presented. The working group asked how they could support the work of the HR Strategy. Ideas and suggestions were shared, and the working group is regrouping to figure out how they can further support the HR strategy to include an increase in recruitment and retention from the Black community. 13. Other Business L. Reyes -Grange and R. Thomas shared that they were on the CABRTF working group Looking at inclusivity and Black representation of Clarington's social media platform. They introduced a social media audit document to P. DaSilva but because the audit lens was very wide (looked at accessibility, AODA, Plain language, inclusive language, pronouns). P. DaSilva had advised them that based on the fact that 1) there is an Accessibility Coordinator and Accessibility Committee who is responsible for anything related to AODA, and 2) the inclusion audit components are within CDAC's TOR/scope, that it may be better to move this project to CDAC unless they want to go back and only look at it through the Black community lens. CDAC members agreed this would be a good initiative to move forward with on CDAD once the accessibility sections are removed from the audit. P. DaSilva will include the proposed audit list and add for further discussion at the next CDAC meeting and arrange a time for L. Reyes -Grange and R. Thomas to meet with the Comm's team. T. Shomar wanted to bring to CDAC members attention that at the last Council meeting a delegation brought forward the idea of fireworks for Diwali so that aligns with the same rules that the Municipality has for Canada Day and Victoria Day. Members of the community do not need a permit and do not pay anything to launch fireworks for these two holidays. The delegation would like the same consideration for Diwali. Clarington Diversity - 6 - November 14, 2024 Advisory Committee Council has decided to complete a Diwali "pilot" project —fees for this year were exempt but applications to launch fireworks had to be submitted. Staff are to report back to Council how many applications were received to make a decision in the future. P. DaSilva will reach out two organizations to see if they are interested incoming to present to CDAC in the new year — Redemption House Recovery and Honouring Indigenous People's Organization Members discussed cancelling the December meeting. Moved by D. Valentine; seconded by R. Thomas That the December 12th meeting be cancelled. Carried Moved by J. Solway; seconded by R. Thomas That CDAC meeting be adjourned at 8:59 pm. Motion to adjourn —Joe and Rochelle Carried Next Meeting: January 911