ENGAGE WITH US: DELEGATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
Updated: Aug 30, 2022
This blog post is part of my series, Civic Citizens Series on Communication. It aims to help Grey Highlands residents communicate better with our municipality.This blog series, Civic Citizen Series: Communications has two parts.
Part One: Grey Highlands Speaks to you
Part Two: You Speak to your Municipality
Connect Grey Highlands (Staff)
Complaints and Service Requests: Complaints Form or Service Requests Form (Staff)
Presenting to Council: Delegation (Council) or Open Forum (Council)
This posts discusses Delegations and Presentations at a Council Meeting.
Delegations or Presentations
A Delegation is a presentation (either in-person or virtually) of new information to Council or a new request of Council while a presentation (either in-person or virtually) is an update, a presentation of a study or information on a project to Council from a consultant or agency. But, really, from a procedural perspective, it doesn't matter if it is a delegation or a presentation as they both get managed the same way.
Delegations and presentations are governed by the same engagement rules.
According to the Procedural By Law, delegations/presentations are limited to three delegations or 30 minutes per meeting (whichever comes first).
Presenters may have been asked by Grey Highlands or not to present. They must give notice via registering to the Clerk no later than seven business days prior to the Regular Meeting of Council. Your registration needs to include:
An outline of the subject matter
The information you plan to present, for example, you might have a PowerPoint presentation or handouts. This becomes part of the record.
To register to delegate or present, visit greyhighlands.ca/register.
When you delegate/present, you need to keep your remarks to the information contained within your registration application, again, all in the name of transparency. Delegations / presentations are kept to ten minutes in total per person, per group or per organization. If more time is needed, it must be included in the information when you register.
Occasionally, a presentation needs more than 30 minutes, in this case, the presentation will take place in a specifically scheduled special Committee of the Whole meeting.
Persons and organizations can only delegate twice in a calendar year on the same subject matter. (This doesn't include presentations requested by Council or staff.)
PRO TIP: As per the Planning Act, you cannot delegate on items that have been the subject of a scheduled public meeting. You will need to present your concerns and opinions at the scheduled public meeting where their comments can be considered along with all other submissions; however, you can speak to an item that has been the subject of a Public Meeting during the Open Forum portion of a Council meeting where the item is included on the agenda.
After the delegation, Council cannot respond to your presentation, with the exception of seeking clarification. This means Council will not debate or discuss the subject matter.
Once the questions of clarification are complete, the delegation is:
Received for information OR
Received for information with a request for further information from staff.
As Council, we may refuse to hear delegations when, in the opinion of Council, the...
“subject of the presentation is beyond the jurisdiction of the Municipality”
Still Reading? Here are some more lil' tidbits regarding delegations from the Grey Highlands as per The Procedural By-Law.
If you are using "a printed script or present slideshows or computerized display presentations" you need to provide a copy to the Municipal Clerk
Make sure all of your handouts are all legible, signed and dated.
If you need more time, indicate it in your original request.
If you feel your presentation requires more than 30 minutes your presentation may be moved to a special Committee of the Whole.
You cannot delegate on items that are the subject of a scheduled public meeting. (This is thanks to the pursuant to the Planning Act). Instead, you can comment at the scheduled public meeting. Your comments will then be considered along with the other submissions.
However, when the planning item is included on the Council Agenda, you can comment on this at Open Forum.
Council cannot respond to a delegation during the meeting, and Council can only seek clarification from the speaker, through the Chair (who usually the mayor).
All delegations are either be received for information, or shall be received for information and request for further information from staff.
You cannot speak to Council relating to any litigation item.
DISCLAIMER The staff at The Municipality of Grey Highlands are experts in their respective fields. If something here is different than staff's advice, always follow staff's direction. And, then please email me at danivaliquette@gmail.com with what I got wrong.
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