Policy Requirements under the Municipal Act, 2001
Considerations When Drafting Policies Required by
the Municipal Act
Prepared by Southern Ontario
Library Service June 2004
français
Appendix A /
Appendix B /
Part 1 - Procurement / Part
2 - Hiring of Employees
This document is
general in nature and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice.
SOLS is not liable for any damages that may follow as a result of a local board
relying on the information presented in the document. A library board solicitor
should be consulted before passing a procurement resolution or approving hiring
policies.
Introduction
The information presented in this
document and in Appendices "A"
and "B"
should be viewed as "workbook" components to help your library decide on
appropriate policies that will fulfill the requirements of the
Municipal Act, 2001. This document addresses some issues that SOLS has
considered as important but in no way should the document be viewed as
exhaustive. You should consult the applicable legislation mentioned in the
document, as well as
A Guide to Developing Procurement Bylaws prepared by the
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and other websites and resources
mentioned here or in
A Guide to Developing Procurement Bylaws. Finally, your initial
steps should include reviewing your own current procurement or purchasing
policies and those of your municipality. Local boards might also consider
contacting the Municipal Service Officer for your area through the
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Summary
of the Guide to Developing Procurement Bylaws
This document,
created by OLSNorth, endeavours to summarize and make more accessible for
public libraries the complete
Guide to Developing Procurement Bylaws: meeting the requirements of the
Municipal Act, 2001.
Municipal Act, 2001,
section 270, public library boards must adopt policies with respect to the
hiring of employees, including policies with respect to the hiring of relatives
of a member of the library board, and the hiring of relatives of existing
employees of the library board, and under
section 271, policies with respect to the procurement of goods and services,
before January 1, 2005.
Library boards should be aware
that there are some important implications inherent in the requirements of these
policies. Firstly, as a local board, you must approve the policies to put them
into effect. This is usually done by passing a resolution at a duly constituted
board meeting. Your policies must deal with the minimum list of subjects
outlined in the legislation. This may mean that some current procedures may need
to form part of the policies.
Staff who are most
familiar with purchasing or personnel, as the case may be, and who understand
policy development should develop these policies. Lastly, the policies should be
developed in enough time to educate municipal/local board staff, to inform
suppliers and others of changes and to allow for consultation with stakeholders,
if needed.
