Kingston City Councillors rejected the notion of creating one super-committee that would tackle a wide range of municipal policies, ranging from arts to garbage collection and potholes.
A committee review done by the City Clerk’s office recommended amalgamating two of the City’s standing committees – Environment, Infrastructure & Transportation Policies (EITP), and Arts, Recreation and Community Policies (ARCP) – into a single body to be called the Environment & Community Policies Committee.
Even though the mandate of both high-profile committees is to oversee the allocation of millions of tax dollars with a direct impact on residents and a host of municipal services, City staff concluded they don’t meet often enough and, when they do, the meetings don’t usually last very long.
Both committees are supposed to convene on a bi-monthly basis – with appointed councillors who serve on them typically meeting in the council chambers of City Hall – but staff found that, in recent years, the meetings are often shelved due to a lack of business.
“During the current term of Council, EITP has met an average of five times per year, with meetings averaging 1.5 hours in length. ARCP has, on average, met fewer than four times per year, with meetings averaging 45 minutes in length,” stated a report from City Solicitor Jenna Morley, who oversees the City Clerk’s office.
The recommendation to have one super-committee would create more efficiency for staff, politicians and the public, the report stated.
“Merging the two committees enables a better use of staff resources and time while maintaining the ability for Council members and the public to provide input at the committee level.”
But councillors disagreed with the advice and voted 8 to 5 at their Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, meeting to keep the two standing committees functioning separately.
Kingston currently has four key standing committees that handle the bulk of municipal business – Planning; Environment, Infrastructure and Transportation Policies; Arts, Recreation and Community Policies; and Administrative Policies – and are responsible for hearing public delegations and making policy recommendations that ultimately flow to City Council for final decisions.
However, councillors said merging two of those committees would do a disservice to the community.
Portsmouth District Councillor Don Amos worried that municipal issues covering arts and culture could fall down the priority list in the committee streamlining effort.
“I feel like we’re minimizing culture,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Conny Glenn stressed that both committees represent an important connection to the community, and merging them for the sake of efficiency isn’t a good enough reason.
“It’s this big mass now of a number of different things that really aren’t connected. And we’re going to lose something here,” said the deputy mayor, who is also the councillor for the Sydenham District.
Some argued that while both committee agendas may not have been busy enough in recent years, they expect business to pick up as a number of pressing issues will soon be at the forefront of municipal decision-making and public input.
For example, Collins-Bayridge District Councillor Lisa Osanic said the City is currently exploring future uses for three recreation facilities – Centre 70, the Memorial Centre, and Portsmouth Olympic Harbour – and the ARCP and EITP committees will help determine how the facilities may be revitalized or repurposed.
Osanic also voiced concerns that creating one super-committee to oversee everything from road construction and garbage collection to arenas and cultural improvements sets up the potential for extra-long meetings that could stretch well into the night in order to get through a much more crowded agenda while hearing public input.
“If we’re merging those two committees… it doesn’t do justice for any of the reports. We get tired by 10 o’clock… and you just start rushing through the reports, and that’s not doing a good service to the City of Kingston,” Osanic said.
Williamsville District Councillor Vincent Cinanni agreed that a super-committee with “unrelated content” can do the public a disservice, as many residents who want to speak to a committee agenda item may not wait around long enough for their item to be heard.
“We really need to give each committee its own focus. I really do believe the public will have a better chance of actually speaking to these items,” he said.
Kingscourt-Rideau District Councillor Brandon Tozzo spoke in favour of the merger, noting the efficiency recommendations that flowed from a detailed review of the committee, board and working group structures, which Council launched late last year, should come as no surprise.
“To me this is just streamlining those processes,” Tozzo said. “The public will still have an input.”
Of the current structure, he added: “These committees just kind of seem like they’re rubber stamps. They kind of seem like they’re not really doing all that much.”
Council voted 12-1 to accept all changes from the clerk’s committee review but voted down one key recommendation in order to keep the ARCP and IETP as separate bodies.
The Clerk said reviewing committee mandates and structures will now be done every Council term, following the setting of its strategic priorities.