City of Barrie has engaged an independent and impartial agent through Local Authority Services Limited (LAS) as the Municipal Closed Meeting Investigator

• agent is authorized to conduct investigations upon receipt of a request for investigation regarding meetings or parts of meetings that are closed to the public contrary to Section 239 of the Municipal Act, 2001 or the municipality/local board's Procedure By-Law
• matters that a municipality or local board are permitted to discuss in closed session are:
  • the security of the property of the City
  • personal matters about an identifiable individual, including City employees
  • a proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the City
  • labour relations or employee negotiations
  • litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals, affecting the City
  • advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose
  • a matter in respect of which a council, board, committee or other body may hold a closed meeting under another Act
  • Information explicitly supplied in confidence to the municipality or local board by Canada, a province or territory or a Crown agency of any of them
  • trade secret or scientific, technical, commercial, financial or labour relations information, supplied in confidence to the municipality or local board, which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons, or organization
  • trade secret or scientific, technical, commercial or financial information that belongs to the municipality or local board and has monetary value or potential monetary value
  • a position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality or local board
  • meetings held for the purposes of educating or training the members AND no member discusses or otherwise deals with any matter in a way that materially advances the business or decision-making of the Council, local board or committee

Any member of the public who feels that the Council/Committee/Board discussed matters in a closed session that are required to be addressed in public may direct a request for investigation

• To request an investigation about closed meeting rules or if you have a question about a closed meeting contact the City Clerk's office by emailing CityClerks@barrie.caor by calling 705-739-4204
• City Clerk, will have checklists of material required for each investigation (provided by the Closed Meeting Investigator Service), see https://www.barrie.ca/government-news/council-committees/meetings for details