Members of City Council regularly meet at Council and committee meetings to discuss issues such as policies, bylaws, the City budget and major projects to be undertaken by City departments.

Members of the public are permitted to speak, either in person, or by phone due to COVID-19 health measures, to Agenda items at Standing Policy Committee Meetings and at Council’s Public Hearings.

Public hearings are opportunities for any individual or organization impacted by a Council or Committee agenda item to provide their opinion directly to Council and have it included in the public record. The City will be reviewing many aspects of the public hearing process.

This engagement will explore how the system could be more user-friendly and inclusive. It will focus on learning what works well, and what barriers members of the public may experience that prevent them from participating in a public hearing.

Public input has been shared with the project team to be used to develop further activities for implementation. This included using feedback to inform impacted groups, Administration, and Council of the barriers identified and opportunities for improvement related to the Public Hearing process.

Council approved the recommendations to the Public Hearing Process Improvements – Recommended Approaches Report (EC2022-0328) and Public Hearing Process 2022-2023 Workplan (EC2022-0328) was created to support related deliverables.

No further input is required from the public at this time.