MEMO TO:  Markham Town Council

 

FROM:        Markham Race Relations Committee

 

SUBJECT:   Markham Race Relations Committee Terms of Reference

 

DATE:         June 4, 2007

 

__________________________________________________________________

 

The Markham Race Relations Committee recommends that the composition of the Committee change as follows.

 

The current Composition section of the Terms of Reference reads:

 

“The Committee shall be comprised of (15) members: three (3) public representatives of the Thornhill community; three (3) public representatives of the Markham community; three (3) public representatives of the Unionville community; three (3) public representatives of the Milliken Mills community; three (3) members of Council; one (1) senior staff representative as appointed by the CAO.”

 

The Committee recommends that this change to:

 

“The Committee shall be comprised of thirteen (13) members:  ten (10) members of the public -- one (1) from each of the eight (8) Wards that constitute the Town of Markham plus one (1) representative from the Mayor’s Youth Task Force and one (1) aboriginal representative -- in addition to three (3) members of Council; and one (1) senior staff representative as appointed by the CAO.“

 

Rationale:

 

The intent behind this change is to develop stronger relationships between the Committee and the community, and to ensure on-going communication with Council on identification of issues.

 

The members from each ward will be responsible to communicate with the Councillor for that ward on a monthly basis to request information that can be shared with the Committee.  The members from each ward on the Committee will also become a contact for the Councillor to discuss issues that arise in their ward.  This is intended to be an informal process of information sharing that could be achieved by a monthly telephone conversation between ward representatives and Councillors.

 

The Committee also recommends that this change be phased in as the terms of current committee members end.