PURPOSE
Section 224 of the Municipal Act, 2001 requires Council "to develop and evaluate the policies and programs of the municipality" and "to ensure that administrative policies, practices and procedures and controllership policies, practices and procedures are in place to implement the decisions of Council". Furthermore, section 270 of the Municipal Act, 2001 requires the municipality to adopt and maintain certain mandatory policies.
This policy will provide consistent guidelines for the creation, management, retention and approval of corporate policies and will aid in the creation and maintenance of a corporate policy database. The database will provide public and staff access to the mandatory and voluntary Corporate Policies of the Corporation of the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake (Town).
POLICY STATEMENT
The Corporation of the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake is committed to formalizing a well defined and transparent process for the creation, management, retention and review of Corporate Policies.
DEFINITIONS
Policy - A statement of intent regarding a particular issue to guide, direct and provide a framework for consistent decision-making.
Corporate Policy - A policy that affects more than one department, employees of more than one department, members of the public or has a budgetary impact by way of creating a new expenditure.
Procedure - A detailed description of how a policy is to be implemented to clarify accountabilities and responsibilities.
SCOPE
This policy applies to all members of the Town's organization including members of Council, full, part-time and contract staff, and members of Committees of Council.
POLICY COMMUNICATION
The policy will be posted on the Town's website, once approved by Council. If required, staff will be advised of the new policy by way of email through the Human Resources Office.
POLICY
The Corporate Services Office will maintain the database which assigns numbers by department to the policy as follows:
P-CDS-16-001 (P-Policy, CDS-Community & Development Department, 16-year, 001-number)
P-OPS-16-001 (P-Policy, OPS-Operations, 16-year, 001-number)
P-CS-16-001 (P-Policy, CS-Corporate Services, 001-number)
P-FC-16-001 (P-Policy, FC-Finance Committee, 001-number)
Creating a Policy
A Corporate Policy shall be created or reviewed at the request of Council, the Senior Management Team, as identified by the department or as required as part of a policy review process.
A policy may contain a general overview of the procedures to implement the policy, but not the specific procedural details.
The policy template is laid out in the database and shall be used for all corporate and departmental policies.
Policy Approval Process
All Corporate Policies and any amendments to Corporate Policies must be approved by by-law. Prior to presentation to Council, all policies will be reviewed by Senior Management Team.
Following approval by Council of a staff report outlining a policy or revisions to a policy, a by-law will be prepared for Council approval.
Policy Maintenance
Policies shall be reviewed as required to ensure they continue to meet the needs of the Town. The originating departments are responsible for ensuring policies are kept current and relevant.
Public Access to Policies
The Corporate Services Department shall post all approved policies to the Town's website.
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