The January 2024 Committee of the Whole Meeting for the Municipal District of St. Stephen covered various important topics for the community. Hosted at the Garcelon Civic Centre, the meeting began with a discussion on the 2024 budget implementation, specifically focusing on enhancing bylaw enforcement. Committee members deliberated on allocating funds for additional personnel or reallocating existing resources to improve bylaw services in the community. 

"As we approve budget, we did put some extra money in for an enhancement to the Bylaw Services Administration," said said the Municipal District's Chief Administrative Officer Jeff Renaud to council. "There's a few options, obviously, on the table. We could bring in a second person, potentially on a part time basis. We could take their current person who's part time, move them to full time, or if there's any specific areas that you would like those funds to be focused on so that we can create a plan for implementation so that we can get this moving as quickly as possible." 

Council Emily Rodas suggested keeping the current bylaw enforcement officer at 20 hours a week and then contracting the Regional Service Commission for the other position.

"I think it would be best to have the current service provider stay at 20 hours and then bring the second person in through the RSC, because it might actually create a better line of communication with us in the RSC," said Rodas. "If they are contracted out through the RSC, then they can also come back and communicate some of the municipal struggles that they're seeing. And I know that they also have kind of like a community safety type or regional safety committee. So that might just create. And then that's perhaps a staff that we can inform what the needs are, but one less staff to technically oversee."

Renaud said he'd look into Rodas' suggestion to see if it was possible. He said he is still looking to council to provide direction on what the second bylaw enforcement officer's priorities would be.  

The meeting also touched upon the upcoming facilitated council strategy session. There was a proposal to bring in a facilitator to assist in strategic planning and team building activities.

"A member of council reached out to me and inquired about possibly bringing in a facilitator to do another session like, such as a Gordon Macintosh, that we've done before," said CAO Renaud. "And they inquired about whether there'd be money in the budget and if it was a desire of the council and the committee to go down that road for a particular purpose. We certainly can identify funds for you that could be used. The question that I had was kind of twofold: If this was something that was of interest to the whole to do, and probably just as important for me is what would be the objectives of that facilitated session. Because if it is Mr. McIntosh, he has five or six different sessions and he'll ask me what am I delivering before he gives me a quote. And if it's not something quite within his forte, I do know a number of other facilitators that specialize in different areas. So if we had a conversation about whether that was of interest and what the goals might be, I can better come back to you with some information as to costing and availability of facilitators if that's the desire of the whole."

There was a consensus among council members to defer the decision until clearer objectives were established, possibly looking at updating the existing strategic plan before proceeding with a facilitated session.

The agenda included a discussion on participating in the Communities in Bloom program. Councillors shared insights from previous involvements in similar initiatives, highlighting the benefits of community engagement and potential challenges. Despite the interest in participating, council decided to aim for the 2025 program due to budget constraints and the need for further planning and coordination.