City Clerk Frequently Asked Questions

Agendas, Minutes and Video are available on Council and Committee Meetings. 

To access meeting agendas click the appropriate meeting on the calendar, a box will open where you can choose to view the HTML or PDF agenda.

For meetings from 2009 to present:

1. In the top right corner of the calendar widget, click the "Upcoming/Past Meetings" button and scroll until you reach the "Past Meetings" section. 
2. Select the meeting type you are looking for. You will have to scroll again to the "Past Meetings" section where you will find a reverse chronological order of the meetings that have already occurred. 
3. You should see 4 links - one to the immediate right of the meeting information and three additional PDFs on the far right side of the widget. Select whichever is the document type you are looking for. 

For meetings prior to 2009:

1. Visit the Past Council and Committee Meetings page. 
2. Select the meeting type and year from the two drop down menus provided. 
3. A list of the meetings of that type that occurred in that year should appear below the search tool. Click the link on the right hand side to view the Minutes for the meeting.

The Council and Committee schedule is approved by City Council once a year at its organizational meeting in October. A special meeting is a meeting that is added after the original schedule was approved. Changes to the schedule can only be approved by Council.

Standing Committee meetings typically take place in the River Valley Room on the main floor of City Hall. Public Hearings and City Council meetings are normally held in Council Chamber on the second floor of City Hall. Agendas always state where the meeting will take place.

Agendas are typically available at Council and Committee Meetings at least 10 clear days before the meeting, with most agendas released on Thursdays for the meetings 1.5 weeks later. Public Hearing agendas are typically posted 2.5 weeks before the meeting.

Minutes are typically available on the website three business days after the meeting has taken place.

Minutes are considered draft until they have been approved by City Council or Standing Committee. Minutes are typically approved at the next meeting of the same type. For example, City Council minutes are approved at the next City Council meeting, and Executive Committee minutes are approved at the next Executive Committee meeting.

To access meeting agendas click the appropriate meeting on the calendar, a box will open where you can choose to view the HTML or PDF agenda. To view a paper copy of an agenda or minutes, you can visit the Office of the City Clerk, located on the 3rd floor of City Hall.

The minutes of each meeting indicate how members of Council voted on every item. Any decisions on an item will be listed under each item title. 

Yes. There are 3 ways to view meetings live remotely.

1. Once you’ve selected the meeting you want to watch, select Agenda (HTML) from the list of options to watch the livestream. 

   • Using this feature allows you to follow along on the agenda while watching. Parts of a meeting held in private will not be available.

2. Watch at Council on the Web.

3. Watch the Council Chamber YouTube channel.

Council and Standing Committees generally consider items in the order that they appear on the agenda. However, through a vote, items can be made time-specific.

Yes. Video recordings are published and linked to the agenda as soon as a meeting has concluded. 

• In the calendar on the Council and Committee meetings page, select the link to the meeting in which you are interested
• Select Agenda (HTML), Minutes (HTML), or Video to view the recording

You can also visit the Council Chambers - City of Edmonton YouTube Channel for live and past meetings.

Audio recordings of Council and Standing Committee meetings from the past 4 years are available through a Google Drive link. Please contact the Office of the City Clerk at 780-496-8171 or informationservices@edmonton.ca to inquire about accessing these.
 

Live captions are available at captioncast.eegicap.com.

You will be prompted to enter a code:

• Enter COECC for meetings held in Council Chamber.
• Enter COERVR for meetings held in the River Valley Room.

You can also view captions available on the live stream at Council on the Web, by clicking on the far right icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the stream, and selecting "Captions - English". 

On the YouTube stream, captions can be turned on by click on the settings icon (the gear) at the bottom right of the video.

Reports are linked to the agenda and minutes from the meeting in which they were considered. The City of Edmonton’s eAgenda allows you to search and view information and documents for upcoming and past meetings. You can also contact the Office of the City Clerk for assistance at 780-496-8171 or informationservices@edmonton.ca.

The reports related to the item title on a Council or Standing Committee agenda are linked to the title. Select the title and the report and attachments will appear on the right side of the screen under the video. Select the PDF icons for the report and attachments to open in a new browser. 

For meetings before November 16, 2009, reports can be viewed by selecting the blue arrow (in older documents) or the blue underlined report title within agendas and minutes. The report will open in PDF format.

If you cannot access a document, please call 780-496-8178 or email city.clerk@edmonton.ca for assistance.

If there is no paperclip icon to the right of a title on an agenda item, There is no report or attachment related to the item you selected.

Online

• Complete this Request to Speak Form.

Phone

• Call 780-496-8178 from 8am – 4:30pm, Monday through Friday, excluding statutory holidays.

In person

• Visit the Office of the City Clerk, 3rd Floor, City Hall.
• You may also register at the meeting itself. To ensure that your request to speak is considered by Council or Committee, please arrive before the start of the meeting. For Statutory Public Hearings (land-use), you must register before the meeting begins.

All speakers have 5 minutes to make a presentation. You may only speak about an issue that is on the agenda. Following your presentation, any Member of Council has up to 5 minutes each to ask you questions.

Speakers are heard in the order that they registered (first come, first served). At Public Hearings, those who speak in favour of the bylaw speak before those who are opposed. If someone is absent when it is their turn to speak, City Council will hear from the next person on the list.

Yes, you may choose to speak for yourself or on someone else's behalf, provided that person has completed and signed an Authorization to Speak on Someone's Behalf form. This form can be printed, completed and returned to the Office of the City Clerk by email to city.clerk@edmonton.ca or in person on the day of the meeting. Please note each speaker has 5 minutes to speak regardless of how many people they are speaking for, including themselves. 

Please contact the Office of the City Clerk at 780-496-8178 or city.clerk@edmonton.ca if you have questions.

No, you would still have 5 minutes to make a presentation.

Yes. Please provide a copy of your presentation to the Office of the City Clerk by 4:30pm the business day before the meeting by emailing city.clerk@edmonton.ca so that it can be loaded and ready for the meeting.  

Please send your materials to city.clerk@edmonton.ca by 4:30pm the business day before the meeting to ensure timely distribution to Council. If you are participating in person and would like to bring physical copies of your handouts, provide 20 copies to the Clerk. The Clerk will hand out your documents to City Council during your presentation.

The list of registered speakers is not publicly available until City Council or Committee has voted to hear from speakers. The list of speakers will be posted on Council and Committee Meetings once the vote has been passed. It will also be included in the minutes.

You can send correspondence to City Council about any topic at any time, or you can call the Councillors’ office at 780-496-8110. You may also send written correspondence to city.clerk@edmonton.ca and the Office of the City Clerk will forward your correspondence to all members of Council.

The Clerk will call out the bylaws to be dealt with. The Mayor will call out the names of the people registered to speak to each bylaw.   

Next, Council members will select the bylaws that they wish to discuss, and vote on any bylaws that have not been selected for discussion. 

Council will then deal with each of the bylaws that were selected for discussion and debate. 

For each item, Administration will first provide an overview of the bylaw. Members of the public who have registered to speak will then be invited to make their presentations. Those in favour will speak first in panels, followed by those opposed, in panels. Each person will have five minutes to make comments. The Clerk will run the official timer in Council Chamber. The timer lights on the podiums will be green for the first four minutes, turn yellow when there is one minute remaining, and flash red when the five minutes are up. If you are participating virtually, you may wish to use a timer of your own. When you have finished your presentation, please remain available as Council may have questions for you.

After comments from the public, Council may ask questions of City Administration. After all questions of Administration have concluded, The Mayor will ask Council if they wish to ask any further questions of those who presented in response to new information that may have arisen during the public hearing. Thereafter, Council may close the public hearing and debate the bylaw.

If you are participating virtually, please remember to mute your microphone when you are not speaking. If you are experiencing any technical difficulties, please reach out to the Office of the City Clerk at 780-496-8178 or at city.clerk@edmonton.ca.

If you are speaking  in person, when it is your turn to speak, please come down to the desk at the front of the room, and the Clerk will direct you to your seat.