Our first internal audit will be considered by our Audit Committee next week. It is significant in many ways and not just because it is our first. I learned about the role of an Internal Auditor during a module on Audit Committees and their financial oversight responsibilities.  This was part of the curriculum of The Directors […]

Our City Clerk has recently consolidated and updated our accountability and transparency measures. They can be found on the following webpage – Accountability and Transparency Measures.

It’s been a little over a year since I gave my inaugural address at the first meeting of this term of Guelph City Council. During the first Council meeting of 2012, I provided an update on our progress during the first year and looked ahead at our priorities for the rest of the term. You can […]

In 1967, Guelph, Wellington and Dufferin freely entered into an agreement to amalgamate the Guelph Public Health Unit with that of the Wellington-Dufferin Health Unit. A newly-constituted Board of Health was established to provide the governance for the delivery of public health programs in the three municipalities. There are risks with any partnership. What if […]

Not unlike the shareholder of a company, taxpayers want to know two key things about how the money is used:  There has been no fraud or misappropriation of funds Quality of decision making (has it delivered results) Taxpayers elect members of Council to ensure that management is accountable for the funding that is entrusted to […]

The City of Guelph takes the issue of public accountability and transparency seriously and continues to push forward on a number of fronts to align our practices with our principles.  The Human Resources Annual Report, presented this week to the Finance, Administration, Corporate and Emergency Services Committee, represents management’s accountability to Council for the responsibility they have been delegated to manage  human […]

Municipal politicians often campaign on a platform of making local government more responsive and yet when elected introduce or entrench practices that only serve to paralyze City Hall by further centralizing control over decision-making. The principles of accountability and transparency are often loudly touted as the reason to centralize the control of decision-making.  This is […]

So why provide a series of posts on the accountability of members of Council? One word – transparency. In founding Canada, our democratic institutions were built upon a set of principles that had evolved over millennia. Our Canadian democracy has not remained stagnant over the years but has responded to the changing aspirations of its […]

Municipal Council Members hold positions of privilege. They are elected to protect the public interest and to perform their functions with integrity and in a manner that promotes public confidence and will bear close public scrutiny. There are many ways that Members of Council are held accountable for their actions as elected representatives including: Declaration […]

Volunteers waiting for Tim Mau and Politically Speaking to go on air. Arrives just in time for tonight’s show.