September 18, 2024, at 12:00 PM
Present:
E. Peloza, P. Cuddy, S. Stevenson, J. Pribil, I. Cheema
Also Present:
S. Datars-Bere, L. Amaral, A. Barbon, M. Barnes, M. Daley, D. Escobar, S. Govindaraj, P. Ladouceur, S. Mollon, J. Paradis, T. Pollitt, M. Schulthess, C. Smith, M. Stone
Remote Attendance:
R. Clarke (MNP), M. Daley, R. Patel (MNP), P. Racco (MNP)
1. Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest
That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.
2. Consent
None.
3. Scheduled Items
None.
4. Items for Direction
4.1 Briefing Note From Internal Audit
2024-09-18 Submission - Briefing Note From Internal Audit
Moved by S. Stevenson
Seconded by J. Pribil
That the communication from MNP, with respect to the briefing note from the internal auditor, BE RECEIVED.
Motion Passed
4.2 Internal Audit Follow Up Activities Dashboard
2024-09-18 Submission - Internal Audit Follow Up
Moved by S. Stevenson
Seconded by J. Pribil
That the communication from MNP, with respect to the internal audit follow up activities update dashboard, BE RECEIVED.
Motion Passed
4.3 HRIS Readiness Assessment - Recommendations and Roadmap
2024-09-18 Submission - HRIS Readiness Assessment
Moved by S. Stevenson
Seconded by J. Pribil
That the HRIS Readiness Assessment - Recommendations and Roadmap from MNP dated August 14, 2024 BE RECEIVED.
Motion Passed
4.4 Accessibility Review
2024-09-18 Submission - Accessibility Review
Moved by P. Cuddy
Seconded by S. Stevenson
That the Accessibility Review from MNP dated September 3, 2024 BE RECEIVED.
Motion Passed
5. Deferred Matters/Additional Business
None.
6. Adjournment
Moved by S. Stevenson
Seconded by P. Cuddy
That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.
Motion Passed
The meeting adjourned at 12:45PM.
Full Transcript
Transcript provided by Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive. Note: This is an automated speech-to-text transcript and may contain errors. Speaker names are not identified.
View full transcript (57 minutes)
[14:32] Good afternoon, everyone. This is the third meeting of the audit committee. The city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Nashvak, Hodeshoni, Lenawak, and Adwandran. We honor and respect the history, language, and culture, the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home. The city of London is currently home to many First Nation, Métis, and Inuit today. As representatives of the people of the city of London, we are grateful to the opportunity to work and live in this territory. For everyone’s information, I’m joined in chambers with Councillor Cuddy, Stevenson, Pribble, and online member Chima has joined us. The city of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communications ports for meetings upon request.
[15:11] To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact accessibility@london.ca, or 519-661-2489, extension 2425. I will look to committee for any disclosures of pecuniary interest. Seeing none in chambers are online, we have no consent items, no schedule items. Under items for direction, we do have four today. Times 4.1 and 4.2 are connected, so if you’re looking okay to deal with those together, and the recommendation would be to receive those reports, and we certainly have people with us to answer any questions or give an overview of any of these reports.
[15:56] If you would like to receive or hear that before you do a motion, so looking to committee for your preference, Councillor Stevenson. Thank you, I’m happy to move both 4.1 and 4.2. Okay, so 4.1 and 4.2 are moved. A seconder would be Councillor Cuddy, looking to see if you would like an overview or just get ready to questions. An overview? I’ll be clean. Okay, looking to the appropriate staff with us online, they might be to give an overview of 4.2 being the internal audit follow-up activities dashboard.
[16:42] Perfect, we can see you, we just can’t hear you yet. My question is- That’s okay. So yeah, through the chair. So just as a quick reminder to the team, so my name is Phil Rack, I work with M&P, I’ll be speaking to the, to the internal audit dashboard. So we present this dashboard on a regular basis in order to have an ongoing tracking of the outstanding items that have been agreed to by management or to address audit findings as we go through, as we go through the process.
[17:22] So for the period that had just passed, the summary or the takeaway was that in totality, there were nine recommendations that were still outstanding. One management action item has been closed and just for the council, that was the timing of that closing was probably should have been covered in the previous update, but we covered it in this one, just due to a little bit of an overlap. There was one item that was, that was retargeted and then seven action items continue to be tracking as per the, the agreed upon due dates.
[17:57] So I’ll just go through those very quickly in case there is anything and then we can just go to the, to the question period. So there was a, an audit that was completed recently that was focused on the neighborhood decision-making program. It was a value for money audit. So again, one of those is tracking well for completion. However, one, as you can kind of see with the, with the summary there has been retargeted from a completion time of December 2024 to December 2025. So that represents that one retargeting that was taking place there. With regards to the recruitment and selection audit, this is the item that was closed off.
[18:33] Again, it was actually closed off a little bit earlier in the year, but there was a little bit of a timing overlap with regards to the timing of the reporting. So that one has been completed in good stead. With regards to the vendor management audit, as was discussed at the previous audit committee, these have been retargeted based upon some adjustments that are being made due to some, some budgetary items and management is working through in order to address those. But as for the update as, you know, with the retargeting, they still are on track for completion.
[19:06] And then the last one just to highlight is the cybersecurity review that was completed. This one is a little bit of, there’s actually like four sub recommendations under one broader recommendation. So two have been completed within the period and two are continuing to be on track. So good progress is being made towards those. So that would be my update with regards to the, the dashboard and where it’s sitting. And again, with throw it back to you, Madam Chair, in case there’s any questions from counselors on that one. Looking to committee members in chambers or online to see if you have any follow up questions, I’ll start my speakers list with Councillor Stevenson.
[19:46] Thank you. I don’t actually have any questions. That was great. And I do appreciate the dashboard. I had some comments to make on the briefing note 4.1. Oh, sure. I can go over the briefing note as well. My apologies. I got that a little bit mixed up in my head. So are you okay, Councillor? If I go over the briefing note and then you can pose your question or? Yeah, absolutely. Through the chair. Please proceed. Thank you. So through the chair, so the briefing note looks to give it a little bit of an update on the status and where things have moved or are continuing to move. So there’s really four items that we wanted to make sure that the committee is aware of with regards to the progress.
[20:25] So the first one is with regards to the HRIS, the information system, the Human Resource Information System Readiness Assessment. So that has been completed and is part of the package that we can go over today. And we’re presenting it as a completed report for the committee’s consideration in this meeting. The same thing with an accessibility review that was completed over the last period. So it is within the package and we can go over the specifics with regards to that one. There is a project or a review that we are currently going through which is with regards to the municipal affordable housing development value for money audit.
[21:06] We had, we’re making good progress on that one. Our goal is to at the next scheduled meeting, which I believe is November 13th, 2024, we target to have a completed report ready for the committee’s consideration at that point. And then the last item for note is that we are in the initial stages of planning for the compliance audit that is going to be focused on the progress made towards creating a safe space, sorry, a safe London for women and girls. So we’re working towards the scoping of that one and we’re looking to come back with substantive updates to committee on the progress of that audit at the November 13th, 2024 meeting.
[21:51] Councilor Stevenson, your questions? No questions, just a few comments. So this is great and it looks like November 13th is going to be a very impactful possibly meeting. There are these look like big topics. I did just want to say on the creating a safe London for women and girls to just thank committee again and council for supporting my request to move this to an earlier date. I still am receiving a lot of concerns from residents and I’m not sure exactly what the audit is covering but I just wanted to raise a few of those publicly now.
[22:27] So we recently had in the news the death of Cheryl Sheldon and her attempts to seek services tragically just before that. I’ve got safety concerns expressed by female tenants in the oldest village area. Landlords are receiving emails saying that, you know, although people are happy with the apartments, they don’t feel safe walking to their car or walking their dog in the neighborhood. There are seniors in some of the subsidized housing there that do not feel safe even on their balcony, certainly not walking around.
[23:02] And I know this council is committed to safe walkable neighborhoods, especially for women and of all ages. Recently I had an experience where I had a homeless woman on my property and I had the opportunity to talk with her and attempt to get her service. She said that she’d been trafficked. I called the human trafficking line. I spoke with a shelter, an emergency shelter here for women and the outreach. And sadly, even though I was able to provide food and a space for a short time, I was not able to get this woman’s support.
[23:42] So in the issues were transportation. She was given a bus ticket, but she had no ability to be able to use that bus ticket or even locate it when the time came that she needed to get on the bus, even though I printed maps and schedules and everything else. So I just bring these up so that these can be taken into consideration. I’m not sure what’s covered in the audit. There was a woman interviewed by a news outlet that stated that she had been paired with a man she didn’t know in one of our shelters. I’m curious about what the shelter guidelines are.
[24:18] So Councilor, I’ll just interject. Would you like to go to the NMP to see what is in that scope that we can expect to come back in November if some of these concerns are? Well, if I could just finish, I just have two more points and then they can consider this whatever’s used or not. Shelter guidelines, we have 2011 shelter guidelines that my understanding is aren’t in place at the moment. Wondering what policies and procedures we have as a city for taxpayer-funded resting spaces and curious also about inspections of shelters and resting spaces to ensure that policies and guidelines are looked after.
[24:53] And the reason this initially, I moved the date forward was resident concerns about taxpayer funds going to an organization that was supporting women who are homeless and addicted in their sex work or that’s what the perception was. So that was one of the reasons I had brought it up last fall. Okay, going to NMP, if you would like to outline, if you’re able at this time, the scope that we can expect to come back as part of the report on November 13th. Sure, so through the chair, and thank you, Councilor, for your comments.
[25:29] These are all helpful items for us to consider as we go through these processes. So thank you for sharing those. The way that this had originally been contemplated and we are still going through the scoping process with management is that we were trying to focus this on being a compliance audit with regards to the stated objectives within the program, right? So what we want to take place is, or what we would like to see executed is, you know, there has been stated objectives within the Creating a Safe London for Women and Girls Initiative.
[26:02] And what we want to utilize this audit to understand is how has management made progress towards those where have there been strengths, issues, pickups in creating the achievement towards that initiative? So again, there’s still some honing and sharpening of our pencil with regards to the scope, but that is at a high level what we’re going to be working towards in order to understand how the city has worked towards setting that objective and then the progress being made towards achieving it. So this will be the identified objectives as laid out in the city strategic plan?
[26:36] Correct. Perfect, Councilor, a follow-up? Yeah, just because you said strategic plan, is it strictly the strategic plan, or is it also previous objectives that were set under Creating a Safe London for Women and Girls? So apologies on that one. If it’s, we want to look at the initiative in totality, right? So if there was the initiative that has been set out, that is anything that is associated with the Creating a Safe London for Women and Girls Initiative, we want to understand again what has been set out in order to be the target that we’re looking to achieve with that, understand what our current state is towards that progress, and how things are looking in order to continue with that achievement.
[27:18] So whatever package those items fall under, whether they be a strategic plan or a separate initiative document, we want to understand the overall objectives of the Creating a Safe London for Women and Girls. Okay, thank you. - Initiative. Ms. Dater’s Barracity Manager. Thank you through the chair. And thank you to Mr. Rocco for his explanation about the scope. We see the scope similarly. The scope of the, of this review would be respectful to the strategic plan activities. I appreciate the other activities and other information being requested here, but it is within the requirements or the expectations of the strategy that has been set within council’s strategic plan.
[28:02] Thank you. Looking for further questions on 4.1 or 4.2. Hey. Yeah, I could do a follow-up and then I will continue with my speakers list as it continues. Okay. Yeah, so just a follow-up on that said I’m clear ‘cause this is a really important aspect of what we’re committed to here as a city. Is it the strategic plan that we just approved? Like the one currently for this council, is that all we’re looking at? ‘Cause I don’t recall there being much under that. I thought there was only one item and we’re new into this term.
[28:38] Ms. Dater’s Barracity. Thank you, Madam Chair and through you to the members of the committee. I would say yes, obviously it is the current strategic plan and the priorities that are identified in the strategic plan. Having said that, I want to be also be clear that this area of work that happens in our community in as much as it’s in council’s strategic plan is also part of other work being done by other community organizations. And there would have been other, I suppose recommendations from the past as well.
[29:13] It would be unreasonable for me to suggest that in this work being a very complex piece of work to do because of the complex nature of the type of services, that there might not be a reality where it could, it could vary a little bit about the types of things that are going to be looked at. Having said that, we are not looking at anything that is funded by the province who provides a significant amount of funding in this community for this type of work, or to be frank, directing any other organization that gets funding from other sources as well. And so I think we’re clear about looking at the strategy council set in its plan, reviewing that and coming back with a report to council in that regard.
[29:55] Thank you, Councillor Stevenson. Okay, next to my speakers list, I have Councillor Pribble. Thank you, and if directly questions to the report, if we can go on, sorry, page four, I just wanna say, true to love in the neighbourhood, the tracking and effectiveness of implemented ideas and projects, I think that’s a fantastic point. Recruitment and selection audit, sourcing and attracting applicants. This has been completed, and I have a question, even though it has been completed, does the auditor follow up and potentially marks additional recommendations after such report is completed?
[30:37] To M&P. Through the chair, so thank you for the question. The way that the process works with regards to specifically what you’re seeing within the dashboard, we work with management in order to identify what the recommendations are. When those recommendations are deemed closed, and the process of deeming them closed is we work with management to understand the progress and then they provide us evidence that those have been completed, and we review that evidence before we complete anything. Once something is completed, that is the end of our involvement in going through the process.
[31:13] If there was wish to do additional tracking and whatnot, that can be a conversation with management, or it would require potentially a follow-up audit that we would look into. But to answer your question, once something has been deemed completed, it is now off the docket as far as direct internal audit follow-up as it fell within the audit that was completed, the audit that it came from. Did that answer your question, sir? Yes, it certainly has, thank you very much, and you said one key thing that it is reviewed before it’s completed, you and the staff, so I think that that’s certainly from my perspective that is sufficient.
[31:51] Thank you, vendor risk management, which is the following point, and this will be probably for both our staff as well. And I have a question, I know we did not approve this in our budget, and it was, I think, staffing and financials about two and a half million dollars. But my question is, when I pulled it out, there were two things I want to make sure, because we did not approve it, we are making steps, though, to improve or to get certain things better. And it states, the city’s decentralized procurement model necessitates the general contract management, including the vendor performance management, and contractor safety management, are conducted on ad hoc basis by the service area.
[32:36] That’s one point, second one. Purchasing currently does not receive copies of any executed contracts or service level agreements post-bid award. These two points I have mentioned, are they potentially gonna be addressed within this scope, or that’s not addressed within this scope, and it will be beyond kind of what we have not approved. Thank you. I can go to several parties for an answer on that. Ms. Barnwood, I will go to Ms. Barbone first, and then I could do any follow up with MNP.
[33:10] Thank you through the chair. So the business case that was put forward was to centralize the vendor-thruer vendor management office to create a whole slew of centralized management of our procurement. That business case was not funded, so that will not be possible. So the variety of things that we would do through a centralized team that would include closing the loop and tracking everything centrally will not be able to be accomplished within the existing resources. So based on that, what our plan is, and then is recognized in through our quarterly, through the update, is that we are going back and are working on revised plans to see how much we can do within existing resources.
[33:56] Given the volume of contracts and procurements that are going through, that area is very, very thinly stretched. So our decentralized procurement process will continue. That means that they don’t have the capacity to be able to centralize every single contract, to be able to create a system that would do that. However, what we are trying to build into our plan, and the very first part of that plan is the update of a new procurement policy to address many of these things and create many of the tools that will assist the corporation on a decentralized basis to achieve many of the objectives that would have been achieved through a centralized model, but on a decentralized basis.
[34:40] So that is what we’re building in. So it’s going to take us a lot longer to do, which is where the revised timelines come into play, because we don’t have the dedicated resources to do it. But the very first step when we bring forward the procurement policy update is to create the tools and the process that will go along with that on a decentralized basis where procurement is able to support the rest of the corporation in doing things. It will not be for each and every, but it will be based on a risk-based approach so that we can try to achieve as much of that objective as possible within the limited resources.
[35:15] Perfect, thank you for that answering, just to follow up on the, because it stated purchasing currently doesn’t receive copies of any executed contracts or service-level agreements post-bid award. Are we reviewing it or will it be potentially included in this? Or again, that would be outside the scope financial, because we don’t have the resources? Ms. Barboon, thank you through the chair. Because it is on a decentralized basis, we will not have the resources to do that. That was part of the business case. However, that is something we’re gonna continue to review if there’s an ability for that to be possible within resisting resources at some future point.
[35:54] It is something we will continue to look at, but at this point in time, it is not something we’re able to achieve with the funding that is available. Thank you very much, no more questions to that area. The other one I have is cybersecurity review, and it’s the point one, or there’s only point one, but C, where it says ITS will be, it’s regarding the KPIs, KPIs. And my question is, have there been any additional KPIs identified, and if they have, have they been implemented? Thank you. Mr. Parris.
[36:26] Through the chair, yes, eight new KPIs have been identified and implemented, and they’re specifically around information security, access management, and asset management. These new AKPIs are being added into the 100 KPIs that we currently have across the ITS division that help ensure business health and good strong service delivery. Councillor Pribble. Thank you very much for that answer, and was this question, sorry, was this section, I don’t have any more questions, thank you. Okay, I didn’t have any other ones online, so I’m certainly back to Councillor Stevenson.
[37:06] Thank you very much. I’ve just taken a peek at the strategic plan, and I feel like it does meet some of the things that I am concerned about, at least via the residents that speak to me, and that is 1.1 F and G. F is build programs, policies, bylaws, and services, and G is to continue to support and access and continue, access to a continuum of safe and quality housing and homelessness prevention options.
[37:41] I just feel as though it’s been a high priority for this council, for the safe London, for women and girls, and it’s increasingly so at a time when public safety is a concern. And I think as we look to ensure that people have housing, that’s so important, but it needs to be safe. It needs to be safe housing. There’s a lot of concerns about our social housing. There’s a lot of concerns about neighborhood safety, the ability to go for a walk in the park, to go to your parking lot and access your car, to walk your dog around the block.
[38:17] And so, whatever we can do, however we can use, you know, whatever MNP is able to do to help guide council in creating a safe London for women and girls and making sure that we can, as best we can, make changes to our policies, procedures, and practices that we are supporting the women of London and female visitors to our city to feel safe coming into our downtowns, visiting their family here and enjoying the amazing amenities that we have here.
[38:51] So, like I said, I had a personal experience where a woman who said she was trafficked, I was unable to get her support. Transportation was not available, a safe place to be was not available, access to some counseling support services were not available. It’s a big concern to me, and I’m hoping that there’ll be something from here that we can use to improve what we’re doing here in the city. 30 seconds. I took those comments for MNP to take away when they consider for follow up in November when we see you.
[39:31] I have no further hands up in chambers and none online from committee members. This is a hand vote at audit committee. So, Mr. Chima, do you need a visual on screen? I would need a visual on screen of a hand up. The clerk is watching. All in favors of item 4.1 and 4.2 be received. Promotion carries. Thank you.
[40:05] Set moves us on to 4.3, which is the Human Resources Information System writing this assessment, recommendations and roadmap would be the recommendation would be to receive this report looking to committee to see if you would like a brief overview presentation from MNP first. Yes, I have nods and chambers. So, looking to MNP first to give a high level overview of your report and then I will vote to committee for questions or a motion to receive it. Thank you through the chair. So, what I’m going to do is I’m gonna ask Ryan Clark, one of my colleagues who was part of the process as well as going through the investigation process as well as the drafting of the report.
[40:47] I’m gonna ask him to give a brief overview of the scope, some of the notable strengths and some of the improvement opportunities that are all summarized within the report. So, Ryan, please. Yeah, thanks, Phil. And good morning, everyone from BC here. But yeah, so in terms of an overview of the report, MNP facilitated in HR readiness assessment, we broke that down into four phases. The first phase was really looking at the planning efforts associated with collecting background documentation and writing a project plan around how we would pursue the next three phases. The second phase was understanding today, basically a current state assessment looking at where in the HR readiness and where in the implementation of phase one A, the city was and where some of the strengths and weaknesses were.
[41:34] And then phase three, looking at how, through a lens of transformation, how the current state would be a valuable, understanding the current state would be valuable in terms of providing an assessment of how to proceed forward and how to be ready as we go forward. And then the final phase phase four was drafting, obviously the report you have in front of you related to the roadmap and activities. Across that scope of work that we facilitated several interviews with members in the committee today, or sorry, in the room today, and provided a day, basically a breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses that we identified.
[42:15] And so some of the risks we identified were areas that we would like to see some improvement were around processes, specifically around documentation and project information. And then the second area being resources, part of the assessment and readiness review was considering areas of the project planning and areas of where resource management could have been augmented or lifted. The final area within the risks was strategic alignment. So considerations around how project governance documentation and change management was incorporated into aligning the HIS with other systems.
[42:58] In terms of the strengths that we identified through the process, MMP and we do these interviews and a lot of these assessments across on a national basis was pleased to see the dedication and expertise of leadership. There was a lot of strong stakeholders both through the project and through the taking on, excuse me, taking on kind of the key project elements and championing those causes. We also identified strengths in terms of the culture and collaboration within the organization to get the project up and running and facilitated in resource environment that you’re in.
[43:39] In terms of opportunities for improvement, we really identified three key opportunities are surrounding project documentation, surrounding resource models that would consider how individual portions of projects would be resource in terms of staffing and increasing the amount of resources associated with project management. And then the final recommendation or opportunity was around formalizing some of the change management supports that the city has in place across all projects.
[44:19] Awesome. Thank you, Ryan. Back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Looking to city staff to see if they would like to make any comments on this report before I turn to committee, please proceed. Thank you through the chair. I just want to thank M&P right off the bat. It was a pleasure working with you on this audit. A lot of great outcomes have come forward, nothing in the red and high risk area, all yellow and green, which is nice to see. The team’s done a great job. I’ve got the director of human people services with me and the manager lead on this, this project.
[44:55] And it has been going very well. We look forward to bringing the team together and applying these best practices around project management, program management and change management. And thanks again for all your input. Mr. Parris, if I could, just we don’t always get to see staff and some members are online. If you could just introduce your staff by name and then we can proceed into questions. Not that we’re going to question them directly, just that we get to know them. Sorry. So we have more of our director of people services. And we got Lucy Amaro, who’s our manager of, it’s a big title, it’s a really, it’s a big, big, big title.
[45:36] And she’s got a huge workload when it comes to this project. And she’s been the spearhead for the last couple of years on this and she’s done a wonderful job. Thank you and thank you for being here with us today. Looking to committee to see if someone’s willing to receive this report moved by Councillor Stevenson, received seconded by Councillor Pribble. Looking to see if there’s any questions or comments to MNP or our city staff. I will start my speakers list with Councillor Pribble. Thank you and to the chair, to the staff.
[46:11] When I look at a couple of the reports and the accessibility review, and when I go to the last column, which is the one management response, that one always includes action plan, accountability, and timeline. If I go to the previous report, which is the one readiness assessment, it just states management response. And by the way, all the management responses that I went through in both reports, I do like them. I think it makes sense to support of it. But in this report, would it be possible to add this?
[46:46] And I don’t know if it’s, if you have the answers now, but if not provide, even for this report, accountability as well as the timeline. Thank you. To city staff, Mr. Paris. For the chair, yes, we’ll be able to do that. Right now, we’re at the point where we’re bringing the team together to go through this. And then we’re gonna be planning out the next phase. And part of that next phase, we’ll be outlining these timelines, these milestones for implementing these practices into that next phase.
[47:23] So this is something we can definitely do for the next audit to share what those outcomes were as we move forward through that next phase. Councillor Pribble. Okay, thank you for that. So as I said, I’m happy with the management response, just if we go forward, if we can have to, oh, sorry, I think there is an additional comment. That’s okay, you look so eager. So long-term, the HRIS project as a whole is built over many years.
[47:56] And these outcomes, implementing all of this, these are high-level change management, project management, program management. These are gonna be built into a long-term project over multiple, multiple years to overall. They’re almost like guiding principles to keep us on the right track, if I can put it in a better way. Not so much of hard KPIs, if that makes sense. Well, most of this stuff is qualitative, then quantitative. Councillor?
[48:31] Thank you, and I do understand that, but if there are parts within the management response that actually takes us to move from step one to step two. So the step one, if we can have in the future, again, just like in the other part, the accountability and the timeline for the ones that it is not long-term. Staff? Through the chair, yeah, absolutely. So the end project date is 2028. I understand exactly where you’re coming from. We didn’t put timelines, we put phase one to phase two, ‘cause we’ve already finished phase one AMB, and we’re planning out phase two.
[49:08] But I understand where you’re coming from, Councillor. Sure. Thank you very much. No more questions or comments, thank you. Thank you, looking to further questions or comments in chambers or online. Last call for item 4.3 before calling the question of all in favor of receipt by a show of hands. That motion carries. Thank you, that moves us on to the accessibility review being item 4.4, also MNP.
[49:48] I will turn to MNP first for a brief overview of the report, and then we’ll proceed from there. Wonderful, thank you, and through the chair, I’m just gonna invite my colleague, Reena Patel, who led the accessibility review similar to what Ryan did for the HRIS review. She’ll give a quick overview of the scope, notable strengths, and then some of the improvement opportunities that are summarized within the report. So, Reena, please. Thank you, and thank you, Councillors, for listening. Just to provide some context on the accessibility report, this engagement was considered an advisory review, so not a compliance audit in the formal perspective.
[50:31] So, our approach was really to review a couple of key areas within the organization, the accessibility, looking at it from the lens of the requirements set out in the AODA legislation, and looking at three specific areas, which includes accessible procurement practices, looking at accessible emergency preparedness, and then also providing some guidance and interpretations of the accessibility requirements against the zoning bylaws. So, three pieces here that we looked at.
[51:05] A couple of notable strengths. We did note with the procurement area that you do have a very good established procurement policy. We understand, of course, that the city is going to conduct a bit of a review and refresh of its procedures and processes, but that policy is really the key governing document that does set out the requirements and does clearly identify that accessibility does need to be considered with any procurement activity within the city. The other strength that we noted is really around the emergency preparedness program and the city of London’s emergency management plan.
[51:43] The city has put very significant efforts towards improving and maturing your preparedness overall, but this also does include supporting response to community-based emergencies, including incorporation of accessibility needs. So, you know, looking at tests and exercises that were done with the evacuation of the community centers, supporting individuals who might need accessibility needs, all that was kind of done as part of the planning and is fully embedded into the emergency preparedness program.
[52:23] When it comes to observations for improvement, really, these are focused in the procurement practice area. Now, just want to confirm again, there were no compliance issues with these. The recommendations are really around improving your overall practices to better incorporate accessibility, and we found sort of three different areas. One is really around revamping and refreshing the process overall, and there’s identified several different areas where you could further embed accessibility into the overall process.
[52:57] We wanted initiation during the procurement process, during bid evaluations, contracting and around the vendor assessment piece as well. So, several areas that we found where you could further embed the practices. The second sort of recommendation that we provided was really around the overall procurement awareness, knowing, of course, that many staff at the city are involved in performing purchases, preparing procurements, both at the competitive and non-competitive levels. And our recommendation is really around increasing awareness and making sure that those individuals who are authorized to make purchases understand their requirements around accessibility when they are conducting that work.
[53:46] Lastly, of course, we found one final observation or area for improvement, and this is really around service provider training and around the third parties that really do support the work that the city is conducting. So, you know, anytime a third party organization does work with the city, we did found areas where we could provide, the city could provide extra guidance to those third parties to ensure that, of course, they are also meeting the requirements of the legislation and that when the two parties are working together, accessibility is going to be considered throughout the service delivery of that engagement or that service that’s being provided.
[54:35] So really, those are the three key areas of procedural improvement. Again, these are not compliance issues. These are just areas that we found where we could further embed the accessibility. The third part of our plan, our report, sorry, is really around the interpretation of the bylaw and this section really just offers guidance to anyone who wants to get some additional support in interpreting the legislation and how it applies to some of the requirements set out in your bylaw.
[55:07] And there are several different areas within the legislation that align with the areas and the bylaws with kind of mapped out sort of the legislation against the bylaw and any guidance around that, of course. The provincial ministry does allow some flexibility. So again, the art report is really focused on providing additional guidance as opposed to concrete, yes or no’s. Passing it back over to the chair and counselors if there’s any additional questions or comments.
[55:44] Thank you. I look to staff to see if there’s any comments we’d like to make before I open it up to committee. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, similar to the comments from Mr. Parity, we’re pleased to be able to work with MNP on this initiative and recognize while the city is very focused on accessibility, there are always opportunities for us to work in improvement. And we are thankful that they’ve been able to share their advice with us. And we look forward to implementing things further as it relates to the timelines that you see in the action plan. Thank you.
[56:18] Looking to committee members, it would be a motion to receive this report. Moved by Councillor Cuddy, seconded by Councillor Stevenson. Opening up to committee members for any further questions or comments in regards to item 4.4. Hang out, I’ll start my speakers list with Councillor Pribble. Thank you and thank you, Ms. Patel, and to our city manager for those comments. And I just want to actually note a question, a comment in terms of the management response, the action plan and accountability and timeline, truly loving it.
[56:54] I think it’s great, it keeps us on track. Thank you for that. And I hope everybody will stay on track. Thank you. Okay, looking online or in chambers for further questions or comments on items 4.4. Seeing none, a hand vote of all in favor of the receipt of the report for 4.4, the accessibility review. Thank you. I’m not aware of any deferred matters or additional business. Okay, I, Councillor Stevenson. Oh, no, my apologies.
[57:25] I was just ahead of the game on a German. Perfect, a German, moved by Councillor Stevenson already, seconded by Councillor Cuddy, online in chambers. Thank you to MNP for being with us today and staff in chambers as this might be it for us. So a motion to adjourn has been moved, all in favor. A motion carries. Thank you everyone. I will see you in November. Thank you, thank you. Thank you.