Winnipeg to make EPC votes public starting Monday

The City says in an effort to improve transparency, people will now be able to see how each member of the Executive Policy Committee votes.

A Vote Information System (VIS) will be used during Executive Policy Committee (EPC) meetings to record votes. During a vote, EPC members will be asked to enter their vote on a computer screen. The votes are then sent to the meeting chair and recorded in the VIS database. Once the vote is recorded and the minute meetings are finalized and published on the Decision Making Information System, Winnipeggers can see how the EPC members voted on Open Data. The city says this could mean the data takes additional days to be released.  

“There is no data more valuable to residents than the decisions being made each and every day by the elected officials who represent them,” Glen Cottick, the City’s Acting Chief Innovation Officer says.

By allowing residents to see how their representative vote, Cottick says the tool will promote transparency within city governance. 

“Today’s launch of electronic tracking of votes marks a significant step forward for transparency and accountability at City Hall,” Mayor Brian Bowman says. “The foundation of accountability for all elected officials is an accessible record of what we stand for and with today's meeting, the City of Winnipeg is launching a new level of accountability that I look forward to seeing rolled out to Council and all Standing Policy Committees in the coming months."

The City says it will be expanding the system to include other committee meetings at a later date.