Accountability and Transparency

The Municipality has appointed Local Authority Services Limited (LAS) – Aird Berlis LLP as the closed meeting investigator for the Municipality and authorized them to conduct investigations as per section 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001. All requests for a closed meeting investigation are submitted to LAS to review and investigate accordingly.

Individuals may submit closed meeting investigation requests to the Director of Legislative Services/Clerk. The Clerk will forward all investigation requests to Aird Berlis LLP, the municipality’s closed meeting investigator. Once received, Aird Berlis LLP will investigate the circumstances of the closed meetings referenced and report publicly on the results of that investigation.

Should you have a concern regarding Municipal Council or committee closed session meetings, where it is alleged that topics discussed in closed session do not comply with the Municipal Act, 2001, please start the process by contacting the Department of Legislative Services.

Compensation and expense reports for elected officials are available for public review.

To review expense reports, please see below:

• 2024 Council remuneration
• 2023 Council remuneration
• 2022 Council remuneration
• 2021 Council remuneration
• 2020 council remuneration 
• 2019 council remuneration

The Municipality of West Grey adheres to a Code of Conduct, pertaining to elected officials.

Members of Council must adhere to other laws and statutes, as well as municipal bylaws, policies, and procedures, which serve to support the Council's Code of Conduct.

Any person or a representative of an organization who has identified or witnessed behaviour or an activity by a member of Council that they believe is in contravention of the Council Code of Conduct, may submit an informal or formal complaint regarding the witnessed behaviour.

Prior to submitting your complaint, determine if it should be dealt with formally or informally. We encourage all members of the public to communicate any and all complaints to the Municipality, in an informal manner prior to initiating the formal complaint process.

Please review Part A of the complaint process if you would like to proceed with an informal complaint.

To submit a formal complaint, please review Part B of the complaint process, fill out this form, and contact the Municipal Integrity Commissioner:

Principles Integrity
Jeffrey A. Abrams and Janice Atwood-Petkovski
30 Haddon Street, Toronto, ON, M5M 3M9
postoffice@principlesintegrity.org 
647-259-8697

The Municipal Conflict of Interest Act requires members of Council to declare any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in relation to a matter under consideration. A pecuniary interest in a matter is one where there is a reasonable likelihood or expectation of financial loss or gain of the member or related persons as per the Act. The onus to declare a pecuniary interest rests with the member, with the opportunity to declare at the meeting. Members of Council who declare an interest will be required to complete a written declaration and submit said declaration to the Director of Legislative Services/Clerk for filing.

To view the current online declaration registry, please see below. To view a hardcopy of past declarations, please visit the municipal office at 402813 Grey Road 4, Durham, ON, N0G 1R0, during regular business hours.

Registry for Declaration of Interest and General Nature Thereof

Section 270 of the Municipal Act, 2001 provides that municipalities must develop and maintain various policies regarding the accountability and transparency of municipal government and its operations.

The following policies have been adopted by Council to ensure compliance:

• Accountability and Transparency
• Council/Staff Relations
• Delegation of Powers and Duties
• Hiring of Employees
• Procurement of Goods and Services
• Public Notice
• Sale and Disposition of Land

Municipalities are required under the Municipal Act, 2001 to provide access to an Integrity Commissioner. Council has appointed Principles Integrity as the Integrity Commissioner for the Municipality of West Grey. 

The Integrity Commissioner has the power to deal with requests to investigate suspected contraventions of the Code of Conduct.

In addition to conducting formal Code of Conduct investigations, the Integrity Commissioner also serves as an advisor on appropriate conduct to individual members of Council or Council as a whole, as well as individual public committee members or committees as a whole.

Principles Integrity can be contacted via 647-259-8697 or postoffice@principlesintegrity.org.