Our Fairness Lens

Everyone who interacts with the City of Toronto has the right to three kinds of fairness: a fair process, a fair decision, and fair treatment. When we look into a complaint, we ask questions to make sure each of these areas were fair.

Fair Process

A fair process is about how the City makes a decision or delivers a service.

In order for a process to be fair, the City must provide you with opportunities to participate meaningfully when the decision has the potential to affect your rights, privileges, or interests. The City is also responsible for ensuring that employees understand that they must be impartial and follow the highest standards of ethical conduct in delivering public programs and services.

For a process to be fair, there must be:

  • Clear communication and good recording keeping
  • Information available about review of appeal processes
  • Advance notice of an action or a decision
  • Clear reasons for the decision

Fair Decision or Outcome

Every day, City of Toronto employees make decisions that affect members of the public. These are results, outcomes, actions, or responses by the City that affect one or more people or organizations.

To ensure that it operates fairly, the City must have rules that are fair and just, and comply with the law. It must ensure that its decisions are based on complete and relevant information. Its decisions must also be equitable by reasonably considering the specific case and people’s circumstances.

For a decision or outcome to be fair, it must:

  • Be based on rules, policies, and procedures that are applied consistently
  • Not be discriminatory
  • Be based only on relevant information
  • Be considerate of the needs and circumstances of the person affected by the decision

Fair Treatment

All people who interact with the City have the right to be treated fairly.

The City must ensure that its programs and services are easily accessible to a diverse range of people and, when delivering services and programs, it must consider people’s individual needs and circumstances. The City must also demonstrate that it holds itself accountable by having a robust and accessible complaints process and by fostering a culture of continuous service improvement.

For treatment to be fair:

  • People must be treated with dignity, respect, and care
  • There needs to be a robust and accessible complaints process
  • The City must provide accessible service that meets people’s needs