Provincial appointee Chris Gariepy took his seat at the table on Monday night as the newest member of the Bradford West Gwillimbury-Innisfil Police Services Board.
A resident of the Big Bay Point area in Innisfil, Gariepy comes to the board with extensive experience in governance and financial oversight.
Not only does he have 40 years experience in the construction industry, as president of Chris Gariepy Construction Advisors, his list of achievements include membership on the management board of the Barrie Baycats, past chair of the Rotary Club of Barrie Charitable Foundation, terms of service on the board of governors at Georgian College, and the board of directors at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH).
Gariepy chaired the RVH board of directors from 2005 to 2007, then chaired the capital redevelopment steering committee that oversaw the $325-million renovation and expansion at the Barrie hospital, from 2008 to 2014.
He has also been engaged in electronic recycling and is a founding member of the Sandbox Centre for Shared Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Barrie.
Gariepy was faced with a major decision in his very first meeting: approval of the South Simcoe Police Service’s 2020 budget, which this year includes a hefty $1.25-million hike in operating costs.
He was also present for the discussion of proposed changes to the term of office for the municipal appointee to the five-member police services board.
The board is comprised of the mayors of the two municipalities policed by the service, two provincial appointees, and a municipal appointee, who is supposed to alternate between Innisfil and Bradford West Gwillimbury.
Normally, the term of the municipal appointee coincides with the term of elected office, but current Bradford West Gwillimbury representative, board chair Licinio Miguelo, has had his term extended to bring experience to the board, which saw two new provincial appointees.
Although it is Innisfil’s “turn” to pick the public representative, Innisfil Mayor Lynn Dollin recommended a change in the rules to ensure that the public member is appointed to a four-year term midway through the elected term of office.
With the chance that mayors could be unseated in any election, Dollin suggested that having the municipal representative chosen at start of each new term of office could result in too large a turnover of board members at one time.
She proposed the change to the start of the municipal representative’s term of office, which would extend Miguelo’s tenure on the board until December 2020 and see a new Innisfil appointee start in January 2021.
“I’m very happy with doing that,” said Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor Rob Keffer. “It’s just so we don’t have too many new board members at one time.”
