Metropolitan Executive Council

The Metropolitan Executive Council (MEC; French: Conseil métropolitain éxécutif, CME) is the municipal corporation and devolved local government of Ottawa, the capital and fourth-most populous city of the Canadian Republic. Its devolved powers come by statute of the Parliament of Canada.

The Metropolitan Executive Council uses the mayor–council form of municipal government, meaning that constituents of Ottawa vote for the Mayor of Ottawa, who leads the MEC and appoints its councilmembers on advice of the eleven boroughs of Ottawa, each of which elects three borough councillors, resulting in 33 MEC members in addition to the Mayor, whom the Mayor appoints to lead various executive departments of the MEC responsible for running the devolved municipal government.

The MEC meets regularly (at least once per month) with the Mayor to deliberate and decide upon policy, which becomes official municipal policy upon ratification by the Mayor (although the Mayor may only ratify policy which at least two-thirds of the MEC councilmembers voted for after the deliberation period, giving the boroughs a degree of influence over city policy).

In spite of the borough councillors' rights mentioned above, the eleven boroughs of Ottawa do not possess their own governments, instead functioning as electoral districts for Ottawa's municipal electoral process.