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Welcome to the Council Watch webpage!
Council Watch is a volunteer-powered group coordinated by Ecology Ottawa that
- Identifies issues of ecological significance before Ottawa City Council
- Recommends actions for Ecology Ottawa and/or the Ottawa community to take on these issues
- Shares information on ecological issues with the general public
Our goals with these activities are to increase the public’s awareness of ecological issues that come before Council, to empower the public with information to take ecological action, and to hold City Council accountable for their decisions.
Currently, we’re a group of around 20 volunteers. Apart from meetings of the entire City Council, we also monitor activities of the following committees/commissions: Environment and Climate Change, Transportation, Planning and Housing, Transit, and Agriculture and Rural Affairs. (See here for a complete list of committees.) We also monitor media and other reports of council activity. Our newest initiative is our Watch Party program. Please join us!
We also develop resources for learning about Council and engaging with it:
- our primer on City Council
- contact information for Council and for five committees
- our summaries of official documents
If you’d like to join us, find out more about the group, or send feedback, please contact the group’s current coordinator, William van Geest. We welcome a variety of participation, including watching meetings, writing reports, policy analysis, producing media, keeping records, translating, or webpage support.
In the meantime, if you’d like to watch City Council on your own time, here are few resources to get you started:
- Agendas and Minutes
- YouTube channel of all City Council meetings
- “How City government works” by the City of Ottawa
