Community Engagement

To register to speak at a Standing Committee, Committee of the Whole, Durham Regional Council or Transit Executive Committee meeting, you will need to complete a delegation request form.

More information about delegating to Regional Council, including the delegation request form, can be found here.

Access Durham Region's open data portal.

Social Media Terms of Use

The purpose of these official Regional social media accounts are to serve as a mechanism for communication between The Regional Municipality of Durham (the "Region") and members of the community. By interacting with the Region through its social media platforms, you accept the terms of use.

1. Comments posted and directed to these accounts are monitored. Under the Region's Social Media Policy, the Region reserves the right to remove inappropriate comments without notice and to block users, including those that:
   • Contain confidential information or violate the legal ownership interest of another party.
   • Contain discriminatory language, profane language, hateful language, harmful misinformation or sexually explicit content.
   • Threaten or defame any person or organization.
   • Support or oppose political candidates or ballot propositions.
   • Promote illegal activity.
   • Promote commercial services or products.
   • Are not topically related to the particular posting.
   • Comments that are written in a language not English or French.
     
     
2. Social media platforms are provided by third parties such as YouTube, X, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. Account holders who use these services, including the Region, are bound by their terms of use and are encouraged to read any terms of use or privacy policies for all social media platforms used to interact with the Region.
   
   
3. The Region is subject to Ontario's Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act ("MFIPPA") and the Personal Health Information and Protection of Privacy Act (PHIPA). Users must not share personal information and/or personal health information. Posts that contain personal or personal health information or confidential data will be removed.
   
   
4. Through its social media sites, the Region may collect limited personal information, such as name and place of residence. Information posted on social media sites can be read by anyone. Furthermore, the information shared via social media platforms is filtered through a third-party social media monitoring service. As such, the anonymity or confidentiality of the sender and any information contained within their correspondence with the Region cannot be guaranteed. The Region does not collect personal health information via social media.
   
   
5. Content posted to the Region's corporate social media accounts will be considered a transitory record and will not be kept as an official record by the Region. However, comments and other content shared by users may become part of the public record and may be used in official Regional documentation, for example, survey results. It is at Region's sole discretion which content will be archived and used.
   
   
6. The Region may review and respond to posted comments and questions at its sole discretion. The Region does not guarantee a response to all questions, comments and discussion shared on its social media sites.

Complaint Process

To report a post or comment that may violate our Terms of Use, such as content promoting discrimination, harassment, or other harm, complete the Compliments, Complaints and Comments form. Members of the public may also use this form to report a post or comment by a Regional employee that may violate our Social Media Policy.

All complaints are reviewed under the Region’s Social Media Policy, Code of Conduct, and relevant laws.

For any questions regarding these terms of use, please contact SocialMedia@durham.ca.

Repeat Offender Protocol

Users who repeatedly violate the Region’s Terms of Use may be subject to escalating enforcement actions for each post:

• First Violation: Comment hidden.

• Second Violation: Comment hidden and warning issued.

• Third Violation: Temporary restriction from commenting (e.g., 7 days).

• Fourth Violation: Permanent ban from the Region’s social media pages.

Definitions

Official Record - Means the official copy or original record in the Region’s custody or control, regardless of form, that supports Regional business such as program delivery or policy development, documents the result of a decision, or has future financial, administrative, research, operational, legal or archival value.

Transitory Record - Means a record in any format that is of short-term value, with no further use beyond an immediate transaction. Transitory records are only required for a limited timeframe to complete a routine action or to prepare a subsequent draft or final version

Personal information - Means recorded information about an identifiable individual, including the following:

• Information relating to the race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation or marital or family status of the individual.
• Information relating to the education or the medical, psychiatric, psychological, criminal or employment history of the individual or information relating to financial transactions in which the individual has been involved.
• Any identifying number, symbol or other particular assigned to the individual.
• The address, telephone number, fingerprints or blood type of the individual.
• The personal opinions or views of the individual except if they relate to another individual.
• Correspondence sent to an institution by the individual that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature, and replies to that correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence.
• The views or opinions of another individual about the individual.
• The individual’s name if it appears with other personal information relating to the individual or where disclosure of the name would reveal other personal information about the individual. Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) Means an Ontario law that governs the collection, use and disclosure of personal health information within the health sector.

References

Social Media Policy