Committees at Work

Governance Committee

The Governance Committee is a special committee of Council focused on Council governance, Council and committee membership, and the election of Council members. It offers guidance on governance issues such as risk assessment, evaluation and Council member development, succession planning and transition effectiveness.

In 2019, the committee focused on the 37 recommendations stemming from the independent review of College governance completed by Governance Solutions Inc. For each recommendation, the committee considered the rationale presented by the governance experts and presented their recommendation to Council.

At the February/March and May Council meetings, Council considered recommendations impacting the Ontario College of Teachers Act, its regulations, College bylaws and policies. Council has recommended to the Minister of Education the following amendments to the College’s Act:

  • reduce the composition of Council from 37 to 18 members
  • establish a Council with an equal number of members from the profession and appointed members
  • establish a sortition process[1] for Council members
  • establish statutory, regulatory and the Standards of Practice and Education committees with individuals other than Council members
  • ensure equal representation of professional and public members on each statutory committee
  • establish staggered, three-year terms for Council and committee members renewable up to one time (six years maximum)
  • establish two-year, renewable terms for Council and committee chair positions.

In April 2019, the Safe and Supportive Classrooms Act passed into law and introduced a number of amendments to the College’s Act. While yet to be proclaimed, the amendments enabled a number of the recommendations from Council, with two exceptions. The amendments did not provide for a selection process nor for the formation of committees with individuals other than Council members. 

With Council approval of a renewed governance framework, the Governance Committee began to further define what various elements of the new framework would entail. In the absence of the required Act amendments, the committee is seeking to provide advice to the government while being prepared to act when such changes are introduced.

Based on the committee’s recommendation, Council approved that a sortition process be used to populate Council. Council also approved an application process for non-Council member committees based on a competency profile.

The Governance Committee ended the year with the engagement of an external facilitator to assist in the development of a competency profile and rubric for use with the sortition and application processes.

1 A sortition process involves sending an invitation to apply for a Council position to randomly selected members of the profession and the public.

Governance

  • Irene Dembek, OCT (e)
  • Tim Gernstein, OCT (e)
  • John Hamilton, OCT (e)
  • Sara Nouini, OCT (e)
  • Tom Potter (a) (Chair)
  • Jonathan Rose (a) (Vice-Chair)
  • Ronna Warsh (a) (to May 28, 2019)
  • Richard Filion (a) (from September 16, 2019)

(a) = appointed
(e) = elected

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