Clerk’s Office

Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is governed by a Board of Directors made up of 28 members appointed by the respective councils of participating municipalities. While staff is responsible for day-to-day operations, the Board of Directors is responsible for TRCA’s strategic direction, matters of governance, ensuring compliance with applicable legislation, ensuring appropriate policies are in place, maintaining the financial soundness of TRCA, and overseeing the proper exercise of the powers of TRCA. The Board of Directors elects an Executive Committee from among its members and may further establish advisory boards and committees with unique mandates. Currently, there are two active advisory boards: The Partners in Project Green Executive Management Committee and the Regional Watershed Alliance.

In practice the Board of Directors governs TRCA through the review and approval of staff recommendations presented through reports brought to Board meetings. Major initiatives, permits, and procurements in excess of $250k CAD require Executive Committee and/or Board of Directors approval and therefore a report. Reports can be initiated by the Senior Leadership Team or by employees when they identify a need for one.

The contents below provide detailed information for staff seeking guidance on preparing Board reports, getting them approved, and attending meetings.

Initiation

Once it is identified that a Board report is required, staff are requested to do the following:

• Consult the Board Meeting Schedule for the report submission deadlines;
• Inform the Deputy Clerk and Analyst, Policy of the incoming report. The information should at minimum include the title of the report, the author, the target meeting, and a short summary of the report.

Creating a Report

All reports are created in the eSCRIBE meeting management software. Report approval requirements are determined in accordance with the Board of Directors and Executive Committee Terms of Reference (appendixes 4 and 5 in the Board of Directors Administrative By-Law) and Procurement Policy. All reports utilize pre-approved report templates, residing in the system and falling into one of the following categories:

• Section I reports require Board of Directors approval. It is recommended that these reports first go to the Executive Committee for review and recommendation, and then to the Board for final approval.
• Section II reports only require Executive Committee approval.
• Section III are information-only, typically providing status updates on existing projects/programs. These typically do not require approval and are just received for information.
• All procurement reports must follow one of the unique procurement templates: VOR, RFP, RFQ, or RFT. All procurements in the $250-500K range are Section II reports and only require Executive Committee approval. Procurements in excess of $500K are Section I reports and require Board of Directors approval. It is strongly recommended that the latter reports (Section I) are first brought to the Executive for review.
• All VOR and RFP reports require a submission of an accompanying in-camera presentation. The templates for VOR presentation and RFP presentation are available at the links.
• All property reports are Section I reports and have to follow one of the property-specific templates.
• All advisory boards and the TRCF Board of Directors have unique templates that must be followed.

If you are unsure of which report template to select, please consult your Immediate Supervisor, Divisional Director, or the Clerk’s Office before you create the report.

For detailed instructions on how to create reports, upload presentations, and manage the report properties, you can consult the eSCRIBE User Guideline. Additionally, the Clerk’s Office provides monthly eSCRIBE training and drop-in sessions which staff can sign up for through the Learning Management System in Dayforce.

Report and Presentation Review and Approvals
Once a report is completed, it has to be submitted for approval in eSCRIBE. The process is described in greater detail in the eSCRIBE User Guideline.

Report approval generally follows a specific workflow meant to ensure thorough and in-depth review by appropriate employees (see the Report Approval Flowchart). Typically the approval process looks like the following, with optional approvers listed in brackets:

(Supervisor, Procurement) → (Business Unit Manager)→ Divisional Director → (Additional Approvers) → Clerk’s Office → Agenda Review Team→ Chief Executive Officer.

• The Supervisor, Procurement is included as a mandatory reviewer for all procurement reports.
• Additional approvers may be added to the workflow by the author or the Clerk’s Office as needed, depending on the contents of the report. For example, reports related to planning and permitting are commonly reviewed by the Director, Policy Planning in addition to Director, Development and Engineering Services, due to the closely related mandates of the two divisions.

Agenda Review Team
The Agenda Review Team (ART) is an internal committee tasked with reviewing reports prior to their inclusion on the Board agenda. The ART includes all Senior Leadership Team members minus the CHRO; Associate Director, Professional Services; Associate Director, Restoration and Resource Management; Associate Director, Property and Risk Management; Clerk and Deputy Clerk; Senior Manager, Communications Marketing and Events; Community and Government Relationship Specialists; and Executive Assistant, CEO’s Office.

ART Meetings are typically held about 2 weeks before the next month’s Executive Committee and 4 weeks before the next month’s Board of Directors meetings. The ART agenda includes all upcoming Board, Executive Committee and advisory board reports for the next month. For example, all February reports are discussed at the January ART meeting.

It is expected that all reports will be submitted in eSCRIBE in time to go through the ART meeting, as it enables a thorough review. To be included on the ART agenda the report has to go through all approval steps described above, up to the Clerk’s Office approval. If the report cannot be reviewed in time (according to the submission timelines, report authors are encouraged to discuss this with their Directors and seek permission to bring draft reports to still solicit ART input. Any draft reports submitted to the ART will need to go through the entire approval workflow once submitted.

Reports approved by the ART are then approved by the Chief Executive Officer prior to being included on the agenda. When there are comments, reports go back to the authors, and the process is repeated until the report is approved.

Note that closed session items are not submitted for ART review.

It is understood that in some case external timelines may prevent the timely submission of the report. In this situation all authors are encouraged to submit early report drafts, as it facilitates early feedback. If submission of an early draft is not possible yet the report is urgent and cannot be deferred to a later meeting, the report authors should notify the Clerk’s Office as early as possible to arrange an alternative approval process. The alternative approval process is an exception and reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

All supporting documents for the meeting, such as presentations, photographs, video recordings, etc., have to be submitted to the Clerk’s Office by the end of day preceding the meeting. All items must be submitted electronically.

General Meeting Etiquette

• To ensure a professional business atmosphere is maintained during the meetings, all TRCA employees are expected to follow the HR-4.10-P Dress Code policy.
• Staff are asked to step forward to the podium and identify themselves clearly, providing their name and their title.
• When responding to Board Member questions, begin your response with “Through the Chair”.

Electronic Meeting Participation
On occasion, due to emergencies and business disruptions, Board meetings may be held via a WebEx videoconference. The WebEx Participant Guide is a handy guide discussing software functionality. When participating in a meeting electronically, keep in mind some videoconference etiquette:

• Choose a quiet place. Remove background noise from your location.
• Choose a location like an office space that has proper lighting. Alternatively, consider blurring your background (see step-by-step here). As we are broadcasting and recording the meetings, we try to avoid capturing on camera individuals who did not consent to being recorded.
• Be present in the electronic meeting the same way you would be present in an in-person meeting.
• All electronic devices, including cellular telephones, must be placed in silent mode during the meeting.
• All microphones must be kept muted when not speaking.
• Use a headset rather than built-in speakers/microphones if possible, to avoid feedback.
• All cameras should be turned off when not speaking.
• Your camera should be at eye level. Your device should be approximately one arm’s length away. It is recommended to look at the camera and not the screen when speaking.
• Once all of your items are approved by the Board/Executive, please feel free to leave the call. You can continue watching the video at the following link: https://video.isilive.ca/trca/live.html
• If you are invited to participate in the closed session, please ensure that third parties are not able to listen to the confidential discussion.

Occasionally, the resolutions for Board reports require a circulation of correspondence items. The Clerk’s Office will draft a correspondence item and work directly with the report authors to prepare the correspondence, identify the correct recipients and circulate the item.

Agendas and minutes for meetings of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and advisory board can be accessed on TRCA’s Meetings, Agendas, and Minutes webpage.

Agendas are published a week in advance of the meeting. In special circumstances an amended agenda may be circulated at least two (2) calendar days in advance of the meeting. This means that all agendas are published on a Friday, a week before the meeting, while all amended agendas are published on a Wednesday the week of the meeting. All agendas are posted online, and links are additionally circulated to employees through email.

In accordance with the Conservation Authorities Act all minutes are published on the TRCA website within thirty (30) calendar days of the meeting.

TRCA live-broadcasts and records all meetings, except for closed session sections. The recordings are available on the Meetings, Agendas, and Minutes webpage.

Q: What is the Agenda Review Team (ART)?
A: ART is an internal cross-departmental committee tasked with reviewing reports prior to their inclusion on the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and advisory board agendas with a goal to encourage comprehensive and multifaceted review.

Q: When are the ART meetings held?
A: ART Meetings are typically held about 2 weeks before the next month’s Executive Committee and 4 weeks before the next month’s Board of Directors meetings.

Q: What is included on the ART agendas?
A: The ART agenda includes all upcoming Board, Executive Committee and advisory board reports for the next month. For example, all February reports are discussed at the January ART meeting.

Q: Is ART review required?
A: It is expected that all reports will be reviewed at the ART meeting. Some reports are circulated to ART as Director-approved, while others are circulated as draft reports when the Director has not approved by the specified deadline. In this case, authors are encouraged to submit early drafts, which may facilitate feedback on the desired direction and any recommended areas of focus. It is recognized that sometimes due to external timelines or other challenges, an early draft cannot be circulated in time for ART. When it is expected that the report cannot make it to ART, the author should reach out to the Clerk’s Office to arrange for an alternative approval method as early as possible.

Q: If a presentation is accompanying my board or advisory board report, what is the review and approval process?
A: If the draft presentation is completed and ready for review, it is recommended that the presentation be submitted as an attachment to the report in eScribe, which will allow reviewers to review and approve the report, any attachments, and presentation in one location. However, if the presentation is not completed by report submission, it is recommended that staff upload the presentation to eScribe as a separate document. For further instructions on how to submit a presentation in eScribe, please consult the eSCRIBE User Guideline.

Q: How do I know if my report would be considered confidential and part of a closed or in-camera session? If so, how do I create an in-camera report in eScribe?
A: Section C4 of the Board of Directors Administrative By-Law contains the subject matters where an in-camera session may be held. For example, reports regarding the security of TRCA property, personal matters about an identifiable individual, including TRCA staff, labour relations or employee negotiations, and other matters would be held in-camera, etc. If you are unsure whether a report would be closed, please consult your Divisional Director or the Clerk’s Office.

To create a confidential report in eScribe, when you open the Create Report window, check off the Closed Session box, which will limit report access to select staff. For further details on creating a confidential report, please visit section 2. Creating a Report in the eSCRIBE User Guideline.

Q: How do I change the permissions of my report in eScribe?
A: To edit the permissions for a report, select Manage Permissions function in the report’s dropdown menu. For further instructions containing eScribe screenshots, please visit the Managing Report Permissions section of the eSCRIBE User Guideline.

Q: Can I change my report or add attachments in eScribe while it is going through the approvals?
A: Once you submit a report for approvals by starting the workflow, you are unable to make any further changes to the report and attachments. This is to ensure that all approvers review the same version of the report. If you would like to make changes to the report, it is recommended that authors terminate the workflow, incorporate any changes, then restart the workflow. You could also note any changes in the Contributor comments section, before restarting the workflow.

Q: Where can I find all deadlines for submission of reports?
A: All submission deadlines for reports can be found in the Internal Meeting Schedule document.