Municipal meetings should always be open to the public
The Ontario Ombudsmen pocket-sized guide, Open Meetings: Guide for Municipalities, can be found at, this link
Below is the digest text from the Ombudsmen site as of January 1st (accessed) overview.
Municipal meetings should always be open to the public, with a few narrow exceptions. Ontario municipalities are required to appoint an investigator for complaints about municipal meetings that are not open to the public; this can be the Ombudsman or another investigator of the municipality’s choosing.
This digest allows users to search the Ombudsman’s investigations of such complaints. You can filter by keyword, Municipal Act exception (see below), or municipality, or use our in-site search function to type in a word or phrase to search using your own words. To search for summaries with a specific combination of keywords from the keyword list, try our new advanced keyword search.
Exceptions and Procedural Issues
To learn more about a particular open meeting exception or specific procedural issues that the Ombudsman frequently addresses, select from the list below.
- 239(2)(a) Security of the property of the municipality
- 239(2)(b) Personal matters about an identifiable individual
- 239(2)(c) Acquisition or disposition of land
- 239(2)(d) Labour relations or employee negotiations
- 239(2)(e) Litigation or potential litigation
- 239(2)(f) Advice subject to solicitor-client privilege
- 239(2)(g) Under another act
- 239(2)(h) Information supplied in confidence by another level of government
- 239(2)(i) Information supplied in confidence by a third party
- 239(2)(j) Information belonging to the municipality
- 239(2)(k) Plans and instructions for negotiations
- 239(3)(a) Request under MFIPPA
- 239(3)(b) Ongoing investigations by an ombudsman or appointed investigator
- 239(3.1) Education or training
- Meeting (definition)
- Minutes
- Notice
- Parse discussion
- Procedure by-law
- Report back
- Resolution
- Vote
