City Council

There are a number of ways to contact City Council. You can email all of Council or check out our Council Contact page to learn more about each individual member and contact them directly.

If you are experiencing an issue with City programs or services such as, but not limited to, water service, roads or trees, you can use the "Report an Issue" tool to report your concern.

If you wish to provide feedback about our services or programs, or have an inquiry related to process and procedures, you can email City Administration.

If you have a request or a concern and are not sure where to direct it, please contact the Clerk's Office. Staff will review your request and direct it accordingly. This may include directing the request to staff if it is administrative, or to the appropriate Sub-committee, Standing Committee or to Council, if it requires direction or a decision of Council. If the request is directed to a meeting of Council you will have an opportunity to register to Appear as a Delegation and speak to the request.

To find a listing of past and upcoming meetings, including agendas, minutes and recordings of meetings, please check out the City’s Council Calendar.

Stratford City Council, as a group, is responsible for representing the best interests of the public, developing and maintaining policies and programs throughout the City, maintaining transparency and openness with regard to the operations of the Municipality and determining which services the municipality provides to residents.

In 2021, the City of Stratford hosted a series of interactive public information sessions online to provide citizens with a better understanding of how the City operates, including the role of Council and administration.

The four sessions were led by Ian McCormack, a local government expert and author of Who’s Driving the Grader and Other Governance Questions.

Video recordings of the online sessions are available here:

Session 1: What the City Can and Cannot Do

Session 2: What the Mayor, Council, CAO and Administration Do

Session 3: Engagement in Local Government - How Citizens Can Get Involved

Session 4: City Finance - Where the Money Comes From, and Where it Goes

Stratford City Council uses a three-step decision making process. Sub-committees of Council make recommendations to the Standing Committees of Council that are then forwarded to City Council for a final decision. View our Decisions Flow Chart.

There are five Sub-committees of Council and they each meet once a month during the day in the Council Chambers. Sub-committee meetings are open to the public. The five Sub-committees are:

• Community Services Sub-committee
• Finance and Labour Relations Sub-committee
• Infrastructure, Transportation and Safety Sub-committee
• Planning and Heritage Sub-committee
• Social Services Sub-committee

Standing Committees are the second step in the decision-making process. Standing Committees meet twice a month in the Council Chambers following the Regular Council meetings. There are five Standing Committees that are the same as the Sub-committees listed above.

A Standing Committee may accept or amend a Sub-committee recommendation or refer it back to Sub-committee for further discussion. If a citizen request has been heard at a Sub-committee meeting, it is not necessary for the presentation to be made again at the Standing Committee.

Stratford City Council meets twice a month to consider reports and the recommendations of the Standing Committees made at the previous meeting. At the Council meeting, adoption of the Standing Committee Reports is the third step in the decision-making process. This three-step process can take a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks to complete but it allows for deliberation by all members of Council in a thorough manner.

Regular Council meetings are generally held on the second and fourth Mondays at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers or electronically and are open to the public. The meeting schedule is subject to change. For a listing of all meetings, go to the Council Calendar.

Minutes from Regular Council meetings are posted to the City's website once adopted by City Council.

Rogers tv coverage of Stratford City Council meetings can be viewed live at https://www.rogerstv.com/show?lid=12&rid=10&sid=8090 when available.

Archived recordings of most meetings can be viewed on the Council Calendar.

In accordance with Section 284(1) of the Municipal Act, an itemized statement of remuneration and expenses paid in the previous year to each member of Council is prepared. Statement of expenses for Mayor and Councillors can be viewed on the Finance Reports page.

The following reports record the length of meetings, including Sub-committee, Committee and Council open session and in-camera session (closed to the public) meetings.

Meeting Time Sheets have been temporarily removed. Contact the Clerks office for this information.