City Clerk's Office 2017 Annual Report

In 2017, staff development and engagement were among our areas of focus, along with sharpening our strategic focus and making sure our election planning accommodates sweeping changes to legislation and ward boundaries.

Looking for the end of the paper chase

Digital first continues to gain traction

A significant digital shift started for us more than a decade ago with development of our integrated system for managing and publishing Council and committee meeting information. Where ten years ago we used 6.7 million sheets of paper for Council-related documents, activity has moved almost entirely online.

Every year our team has developed improvements and added information on public appointments, bylaws, confidential information and more. Now, with an average of 160,000 unique visitors each month and more than 28,000 subscriptions to email updates, we reach many times more individuals than we ever could using the former paper-based systems.

This shift demonstrates the public appetite for online material. In addition to reducing use of paper, a digital-first approach often makes information more accessible and available more quickly.

Internally, we are entering another significant digital shift, as we change our records management focus from supporting paper records to supporting divisions in managing electronic records. Close to 90 per cent of City records are created digitally, and services themselves are increasingly moving to electronic delivery. We have consulted divisions across the City to assess what is needed to complete the transition to electronic records management. In addition, we are working with the City's Information and Technology division to develop a system to fully manage City documents from their creation to final destruction or transferring to the City Archives.

Among our other recent achievements:

  • Ten decision-making bodies are now paperless, with exceptions for confidential documents and accessibility needs.
  • Photocopying at our high-speed copy centres is down 45% in the past ten years.
  • The Archives' Research Hall saw a 20% decline in copying due to the popularity of self-serve scanners in 2017.
  • Our Strategic Protocol and External Relations unit launched several new online request forms, eliminating the need for paper forms.
  • We launched our first digital-only annual report.
  • We encouraged couples to use online marriage licence applications, and saw an increase to almost half being started online.
  • We are planning enhancements for the new term of Council that will include electronic handling of confidential documents and communications.
This illustration shows how City Clerk's Office services are shifting toward digital delivery. Overall there has been a 10-year reduction in high speed photocopying of 45 per cent. At the Archives Research Hall, there has been a 20 per cent reduction in copying over one-year. Regarding Council and committees, there are a total of 28,565 subscriptions to electronic updates and 42,000 hours of online meetings viewed. There has been a one-year increase of 88 per cent in communication to Council, mostly email.