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Print | YORK REGION>Regional Government>Agendas Minutes and Reports |
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THE COUNCIL AND COMMITTEE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
[To find out what will be considered at upcoming meetings, check the agendas, here.]
1. How does the Regional decision-making process work?
2. How many Committees are there?
3. When do the Committees meet?
6. How do I request to speak at a Committee meeting?
7. How do I make my presentation? Can I bring supporting materials?
8. What happens after I speak?
9. How do I find out what happened to an item?
1. How does the Regional decision-making process work?
Regional staff make recommendations on issues through reports to the Committees of York Region. The reports usually provide some background to the issue, various options for action and the financial implications, if any. Committees generally meet monthly to review staff reports, and provide their recommendations on each report, in the form of a 'Committee Report' to Regional Council. The final course of action is decided by Council following consideration of the Committee Reports.
2. How many Committees are there?
The following Committees report to Regional Council:
§ Audit Committee
§ Community and Health Services Committee
§ Environmental Services Committee
§ Finance and Administration Committee
§ Planning and Economic Development Committee
§ Transportation Services Committee
Click here for more information on these Committees and various ad hoc Committees.
3. When do the Committees meet?
All of the above Committees except for Audit Committee meet monthly, with the exception of July and August. The current schedule for Council and Committee meetings can be found here.
4. Can I attend the meetings?
Yes, except in certain limited circumstances all meetings of Regional Council and Committees are open to the public.
5. Can I speak at a meeting?
Yes, but all deputations are subject to the agreement of the members of the Committee. If the issue you wish to talk about is not scheduled to be heard at that Committee meeting, the Committee will usually defer your deputation to the time when it will be considered.
Generally, requests to speak at Regional Council are referred to the appropriate Committee in accordance with section 14 of the Regional Council's Procedure By-law. Committee proceedings are handled more informally than at Council.
6. How do I request to speak at a Committee meeting?
To make a request to speak, please contact the Clerk's Office at (905) 830-4444 x 1320 and ask to speak to the Committee Coordinator responsible for the Committee. The Committee Coordinator will provide you with information about the Committee and can answer any other questions you might have about making a deputation.
Once you have the details you need, send a formal request to speak (by email, fax or mail) to the appropriate Committee Coordinator. Your request should include your full name, mailing address, telephone number at which you can be contacted during normal business hours and an outline of the nature of the deputation you wish to make.
7. How do I make my presentation? Can I bring supporting materials?
Audiovisual equipment is available in the meeting rooms. You may provide your material in slide format in advance of the meeting or bring a CD/USB drive with you to the meeting. Make sure to discuss this with the Committee Coordinator when you call to request deputant status so that the appropriate equipment can be set up. Handouts can be distributed at the meeting. It's always best to send us your presentation at least 24 hours before the meeting so that we can check it for compatibility with Regional audio visual systems and load it for you.
8. What happens after I speak?
Immediately following your deputation, the Committee members may ask questions to better understand your issue. The Committee will then consider the staff recommendations in light of your comments and those from others. This might happen right away or it may occur later in the meeting. You are welcome to stay to listen to the discussion and hear the Committee's recommendation on the issue you are interested in.
Following the meeting, the Committee's recommendations are forwarded to the current month's Council meeting. The Committee's recommendations are placed on the Council agenda in the form of a 'Committee Report' for Council's consideration. The current schedule for Council meetings can be found here.
9. How do I find out what happened to an item?
If you stayed at the Committee meeting you will already know the Committee's recommendation but the final decision rests with Council.
Council decisions are found in the minutes of Council meetings, which are posted here. Council's decisions on each Committee Report can be found by clicking the link to the appropriate Committee Report in the Council minutes.
The following screenshots show how to get the final Council decisions on the Transit Committee proceedings of April 16, 2009. The same method can be used for any other meeting.
- Select the appropriate year of the Council meeting. In this instance, we want 2009.
- Select the meeting date. We know Transit Committee was on April 16, 2009 so we want the first Council meeting after that. In this case, it is April 23.
- Clicking on the meeting date brings up the Council minutes for that meeting.
- Scroll down until you find the "Committee Reports" section. We're looking for Transit Committee and it can be found towards the bottom of the list of Reports. We can also see from the note in italics that the Report was amended by Council. We need to click on the link to get more information.
- Now we are in the Report itself. Each item on the Report is linked so that all the information provided to the Committee and Council is also available to the public. Let's say we are interested in an Item, we just click the link and…
- …we get access to the original staff report. You can see that, because the original recommendations were amended by Council, there is a note at the top of the report. This is so that anybody going into the Committee Reports later can see that Council's final decision differed from the original and can compare the differences.
If you have questions on anything not covered here, please call the Clerk's Office at 905-830-4444 ext. 1320
