Ingersoll asks the public for input on procedural by-law

Lee Griffi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Ingersoll is looking for some help as it looks to update a by-law that dictates how council does what it does, so to speak.

Every municipality in Ontario is required to have a Procedure By-Law that governs how council and committee members carry out the business of the municipality. Ingersoll’s current by-law was created in 2018 and has been amended periodically to address housekeeping or legislative changes. The town is in the process of undertaking a comprehensive review of the by-law and has launched a survey to help.

“The by-law governs how the municipality and council members carry out the business of the municipality,” explained the town’s deputy clerk, Julie Ellis. “It is essentially a set structure that guides them through council and committee meetings. It outlines how members cast their votes, how late meetings can run, the conduct of council and how and when residents can speak at meetings and interact with staff and council.”

Ellis added the norm is to update the by-law every term or other term of council, but the main reason it is being done now is the town has the staff capacity to do so.

“We haven’t had that for a while, and for the clerk and I, it is something important for both of us. I did one in my previous role, and we hope to have it in place before the next term of council (in the fall of 2026).”

The town will be receiving feedback through three different surveys – the online public survey, a lengthy one for members of council and another for staff members who frequently attend council meetings.

“That gives us a few different perspectives, but the one going out to the public contains some direct questions about how they view our council meetings, how accessible they are, and we have left room for some open-ended responses. We have received quite a few responses and some great feedback,” added Ellis, who has been pleasantly surprised with the level of engagement from the public.

She added the goal is to eventually streamline how council runs meetings to better serve ratepayers.

“We are going to conduct some housekeeping changes, better organize a few things and make some changes to make the by-law a bit more accessible. We will look at meeting efficiencies which could result in shorter council meetings.”

Some areas of potential change revolves around delegations and presentations, rules of debate, and moving and amending motions.

“The meeting schedule is also up for debate along with how we use our consent agenda and how we frame correspondence.”

The window for Ingersoll residents to have their say closes on Monday. The next step for town staff is to compile the data and bring forward recommendations.

“We will be doing that through the end of March to April and at the April meeting of council we will be bringing forward a draft by-law back to council for input. It would then come to the following meeting for approval,” explained Ellis. “A procedure by-law isn’t something that interests everyone and we thought we would get feedback from a handful of people, but we have gotten a really significant return and there is still time to get more,” she added.

Any Ingersoll resident with questions regarding the survey is welcome to contact the clerk’s office. The survey is available at https://www.ingersoll.ca/town-hall/procedure-by-law-review/.