Public engagement options in Ontario

It is the role of council to represent the public and to consider the well-being and interests of the municipality.

Section 224

There are a number of ways that a municipality can engage and inform residents and solicit feedback on programs and projects to gauge what their priorities are:

Engagement options:

• Accept presentations before council
• Accept written correspondence to council
• Accept petitions to council
• Contact your municipal representatives by e-mail, phone and mail
• Live chat customer service

Engagement outreach:

• Email newsletters and social media updates
• Comment forms
• Online community engagement software
• Surveys
• Public meetings (consultation centres, information centres, town halls)
• Workshops
• Polling
• Advisory committees
• Referendum (ballot questions)

Organizations:

• Community Action Networks (CAN)
• Neighbourhood Associations

Councillors:

• Websites
• Email newsletters and social media updates
• Town halls

Municipal Community Engagement Plans in Ontario

Some municipalities have developed formalized “Community Engagement Plans” on how they are to communicate with, and request feedback from residents:

• Ajax
• Barrie
• Burlington
• Guelph
• Owen Sound
• Waterloo

The City of Greater Sudbury conducted a community engagement review in 2014 to explore options to promote strategic and fulsome community engagement and provide opportunities for citizens to get involved in municipal decision-making processes in alignment with their Public Participation Policy.

The accompanying survey resulted in the highest number of respondents since the City started conducting regular surveys, with nearly 1,000 people providing a response, while the public input session was poorly attended, suggesting that it is important for residents to have the ability to engage at their convenience rather than at a specific date and time.

Political decision-making is most effective when it includes public input from an active, engaged and educated public. … It is the responsibility of [the City] to assess opportunities for public engagement.

City of Greater Sudbury, Public Participation Policy

London’s Ranked Ballot Community Engagement Results report summarized public feedback when considering switching to a ranked ballot for the 2018 municipal election.

The report considered the following sources of feedback from residents:

• 4 ‘Rank Your Vote’ Open Houses – Total of 91 participants
• Presentation to the Accessibility Advisory Committee
• Various Councillor-led Open Houses, Community Meetings, Drop-in Information Centres, etc.
• Provision of information regarding ranked ballots on the City of London’s website – promoted on the City’s homepage for 5 weeks, with 695 visitors to web page.
• An online survey at https://getinvolved.london.ca/rank-your-vote which received 536 Surveys completed
• E-mails received at [email protected]
• Phone calls made to the City of London’s Election Office
• Social Media (Twitter and Facebook) – see Appendix ‘C’ which summarized the discussions on Twitter and Facebook.
  • 6 Facebook posts
  • 81 post shares
  • 14 Tweets
  • 125 Retweets
  • 413 views on YouTube
  • 3 Our City e-newsletter articles

Public Participation Spectrum

Many Canadian municipalities use the International Association for Public Participation’s (IAP2) spectrum/framework for public participation, which is a recognized global standard that shows the possible types of engagement with stakeholders and communities. The spectrum also shows the increasing level of public impact progressing through the spectrum beginning with “inform” through to “empower”.

Burlington outlines the tools they will use to engage the public into the following categories:

Email newsletters and social media updates

Live chat customer service

Municipalities that offer live chat customer service to residents:

• Chatham-Kent
• Greater Sudbury

Comment forms

Online community engagement software

Online engagement software like EngagementHQ and Social Pinpoint provide a primary location for each project or initiative that includes publishing updates, documentation and collecting feedback about the project.

It includes contact information (name, email and phone number) of the staff member responsible, a timeline of project updates, public feedback submitted by other residents and links to relevant files, allowing people to get “up to speed” follow along if they’re interested in a project that’s already underway.

The platform can send push notifications to users – such as emergency notices, event information, county waste collection changes, road closures, etc.

This gives the municipality the opportunity to inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower residents and allows administration the ability to obtain feedback from residents

Questions and answers

Public feedback

Other software platforms include:

Municipalities in Ontario that use online engagement platforms:

• Ajax
• Algonquin Highlands
• Barrie
• Brampton
• Burlington
• Chatham-Kent
• Collingwood
• Guelph
• Hamilton
• Kawartha Lakes
• Kingston
• Lincoln
• Milton
• Ottawa
• Owen Sound
• Oxford County
• Port Colborne
• Peterborough
• Sarnia
• Seguin
• Selwyn
• Greater Sudbury: Publishes a report showing the traffic and submissions made through the platform
• Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge
• Welland
• Centre Wellington

How much does EngagementHQ/Bang the Table cost?

• Collingwood paid $15,000 per year in 2022
• Centre Wellington paid an annual fee of $10,000 in 2016, $10,176 in 2021
• Chatham-Kent paid an annual fee of $22,500 in 2020.
• Sarnia paid $18,000 per year in 2019

Surveys

• 2018 Greater Sudbury Citizen Satisfaction Survey
• 2024 Coburg Budget Survey
• 2025 Belleville Police Service Board Strategic Plan survey
• 2025 Belleville Capital Budget survey
• 2025 Belleville Official Plan Review survey

Public meetings

Public meetings (also called information/consultation centre, open house, Public Information Sessions or town halls).

Workshops

Polling

City of Toronto conducts polls to determine the opinions of property owners, residents and businesses that could be affected by a change in their neighbourhood regarding:

• Off-street parking (front yard parking and commercial boulevard parking)
• Permit parking
• Business Improvement Area

Referendum (ballot questions)

Ballot questions must be yes-or-no, legally neutral, and approved well in advance.

Community Action Networks (CAN)

CANs are local community-led non-profit groups with an elected Executive that receive an annual grant, pending Council approval, to cover eligible operating and administrative costs.

Greater Sudbury‘s Community Action Network program was established in 2002 to provide a two-way line of communication between the community, City of Greater Sudbury (City) staff, and City Councillors to help with the planning and implementation of community initiatives. The role of Community Action Networks (CANs) has evolved since that time, growing to a current total of 20 recognized CANs which receive a $2,500 annual grant.

They are transition to a “community affiliate program” by 2027.

Communications become part of the public record

All communications made through the Office of the City Clerk or at a public meeting (City Council, standing Committees, boards and committees) create a record which is kept on file by the municipality, may be viewed by the general public and copies may be released on request through the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Informal vs formal channels

• Informal channels: Communications shared through informal channels such as sending email, phone and mail to a council member are NOT a matter of public record and not referred to during Council’s decision-making process.
• Formal channels: Communications shared through formal channels are a matter of public record, and are documented and referred to throughout Council’s decision-making process. All formal communication requests may need to be directed to a particular department such as Legislative & Court Services.