For council or board
AI Adoption
Policy
The governing instrument. Written in plain language for the people who have to vote on it, and grounded in the legislation that actually applies to you.
A policy your council or board adopts.
Procedures your staff can follow.
Spencer Morley Consulting writes AI adoption policies and companion procedures for municipalities, school boards and other public bodies across Canada. The policy is the governing instrument your council or board votes on. The procedures are the operating rules staff use day to day. Both are grounded in your province’s privacy law and written in your own format.
Book a 15-minute callWho this is for
Municipalities and the public bodies around them.
The same two documents, built the same way, for any public body that answers to an elected or appointed board:
- Municipalities of every size, from summer villages to cities
- School boards: public, separate and francophone boards, and charter schools
- Library boards, municipal and regional
- Police commissions and policing committees
- Regional services commissions for water, wastewater, waste and emergency services
- Housing management bodies, including seniors’ lodge foundations
- Irrigation and drainage districts, and growth management boards
In Alberta, each of these is a public body under the Access to Information Act and the Protection of Privacy Act, so the same privacy obligations shape the policy.
What will you receive?
Spencer Morley Consulting writes both.
AI Adoption
For administration
AI Adoption
Procedures
The operating companion. This is the document a staff member opens on a Tuesday afternoon when they have a tool in front of them and a decision to make.
What the procedures cover.
Most AI policies stop at principles. The procedures are where they become usable. A typical set covers:
- which tools are approved, and who can add one to the list
- what information may never be entered into a public AI tool
- when a person must review AI output before it is used or sent
- when residents, students or families are told that AI was used
- how AI-assisted records are kept for access-to-information and retention purposes
- how staff report a mistake or a privacy incident
- training, and how often the procedures are reviewed
Exact contents follow your existing policy suite and what is actually in use in your organization.
How the work runs
Built to connect to the policies you already have.
Six phases, from first conversation to a draft ready for council or board approval. A key distinction is how we reconcile your existing policies: the new AI policy is written inside your policy suite, not beside it.
- Phase 01
Discovery & regulatory grounding
Executive sponsor & designated lead
What is actually in use, what council or the board expects, and which privacy, records and IT considerations apply to your holdings.
- Phase 02
Policy suite cross-reference
Where the value is
Existing instruments are read for conflicts and gaps, so the new policy attaches to them instead of sitting beside them.
- Phase 03
Precedent & framework benchmarking
Adopted Canadian public-sector precedents and current provincial guidance are checked against present law before they inform the draft.
- Phase 04
Two-tier drafting
Policy + procedure
A council or board policy sets principles and authority. A companion procedure sets the day-to-day operating rules.
- Phase 05
Stakeholder review & refinement
Draft language is tested with administration and your IT provider before council or the board sees it.
- Phase 06
Approval-ready finalization
Both documents are finalized in your format and numbering: the policy for council or board approval, the procedure approved separately, commonly by the CAO or superintendent.
Phase 2 cross-references the AI policy against
- Privacy management program
- Employee code of conduct
- Acceptable use of technology
- Social media policy
- Records management & retention
- Council or trustee governance & accountability
Stress test
between phases 4 and 5
between phases 4 and 5
Before the second draft, the policy and procedure are run against written case scenarios (hypothetical, roles only), tracing authority, reporting duties and decisions across the policy, the procedure and the surrounding instruments. Each finding is resolved through a draft amendment, an operational action or a recorded decision; material revisions are retested.
A policy that stands on its own has nothing holding it up.
When a new policy sits beside the existing suite instead of inside it, nothing in the other policies points at it, no governance instrument gives it standing, and shared language is written twice. Duplicated language drifts apart at the first amendment.
So we write the new policy inside your policy suite. We reconcile definitions, responsibilities, approval routes and incident procedures across your existing instruments, and identify the companion amendments needed to implement it, with an owner and a review point for each.
For school boards
Trustees adopt the policy. Procedures carry it.
School boards sit under the same privacy law as municipalities: in Alberta, the Access to Information Act and the Protection of Privacy Act; in Ontario, MFIPPA. The method above holds. What changes is the chain and the stakes.
- the board of trustees adopts the policy
- the administrative procedures are commonly issued by the superintendent and slot into your existing numbering
- the procedures account for student and family information, not only staff and operational records
- the policy suite cross-reference covers the board policies and administrative procedures you already have
Book a short call and we will scope it against your board’s current policy handbook.
How does this fit
your public body?
The structure above holds for every public body. What changes is the law behind it, the approval chain, and the length.
Provincial guides for municipalities
A few useful answers.
Who writes AI adoption policies and procedures for Canadian municipalities and public bodies?
Spencer Morley Consulting, an Edmonton-based firm founded in 2023, writes AI adoption policies and companion procedures for municipalities, school boards and other public bodies across Canada. Each policy is grounded in the provincial privacy law that applies, written to connect to existing policies, and finalized in the council’s or board’s own format for approval.
Do you work with school boards?
Yes. School boards are public bodies under the same privacy law as municipalities, so the method holds. The board of trustees adopts the policy, the administrative procedures are commonly issued by the superintendent, and the procedures account for student and family information.
Why should they be separate documents?
Because they change at different speeds and are approved by different people. A council or board adopts the policy and should not have to reconvene every time a tool is added to the approved list. Keeping the procedures separate lets administration maintain them as tools change, while the governing policy stays stable.
Who owns the documents?
You do. They are delivered as your documents, under your name, for you to adopt, amend, and maintain. Spencer Morley Consulting is the contractor behind them, not a party to them.
Do you write other municipal policies?
Yes. Spencer Morley Consulting also writes and updates communications policies, public participation policies and other council policies, for municipalities anywhere in Canada. See municipal policy writing.
Tell us what you’re facing.
Book a time to talk, or send a note with the form and we will reply by email.
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