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Background
On February 7, 2022, City Council carried motion NO 69/13 requesting the City Manager to commission an independent evaluation of the response to the occupation of the City of Ottawa with a view to better overall governmental agencies response to planning, coordination, communications, sharing of resources including deployment and report back by May 2022 for consideration by all levels of government prior to Canada Day.
On March 28, 2022, the Ottawa Police Services Board approved a motion requesting the Auditor General to lead a review of the Ottawa Police Service’s overall response to the convoy protest.
On March 29, 2022, the City Manager provided a written request to the Auditor General requesting that the Office of the Auditor General consider undertaking the independent evaluation of the City’s response to the Convoy Protest as directed on February 7, 2022.
The Auditor General accepted both requests on March 29, 2022.
Public Consultation
A public consultation process was held in June 2022 and July 2022 to gain a better understanding of how City of Ottawa residents may have been impacted during the demonstration.
We held 2 virtual public consultations on July 12, 2022, and July 13, 2022. These sessions provided us with significant insights into how residents were impacted during the demonstration and how City services and programs could have been improved. Recordings of these sessions can be viewed below.
In addition to the open sessions that were held, members of the public were invited to complete a survey or to write to us directly to share their experiences of how the demonstration impacted them personally. We received over 1,600 responses to our survey; among the highest response rates for a City of Ottawa survey.
About the Audits
As explained in the Background section above, the OAG accepted a request to audit the response to the convoy protest by 2 separate and distinct governing bodies; 1) City Council through the City Manager; and 2) the Ottawa Police Services Board.
It is important to note that while the Ottawa Police Service is the municipal police force that serves the geographic area of Ottawa, it is a distinct organization that is separate from the City of Ottawa (the corporate entity of municipal government in Ottawa). As such, we conducted separate and distinct audits while taking into consideration the collaboration required between City of Ottawa staff and Ottawa Police Service staff during the event.
Please visit the respective pages below for updates on our three audits: