Created in 1974, it consists of 29 elected representatives, including the Regional Chair.
Each municipality elects the following number of regional councillors: The council is led by a Regional Chair, who is directly elected by the public.
The current Regional Chair is John Henry.
In 2006, Pickering, Ajax, and Oshawa placed non-binding referendums on their local election ballots to ask voters whether the chair should be directly elected.
Council used to sit for a three-year term, but the Ontario Legislature passed legislation increasing the length of municipal council terms in Ontario to four years.