Live from Shire Hall

Council to live-stream meetings online

Council has given a tentative green light to live-stream County council and committee meetings. It has earmarked $15,000 in the 2016 budget to facilitate the broadcast of its meetings over the Internet— $5,000 for one-time setup and equipment costs and the balance for the recurring cost of system maintenance and archiving. This has been the key stumbling block for several years. Council meetings are currently captured, both video and audio, and viewed in a nearby room— used typically as overflow. But council and committee meetings are matters of record.

So if they are to be broadcast online, the video must be stored, archived and made accessible.

It has taken some years for service providers to arrive at this rather narrow niche market with a product that was affordable to a municipality of this size.

But County staff believe they have found a suitable vendor with a reasonably priced product to serve this need.

Councillor Lenny Epstein has led the push through two budget cycles looking for a streaming solution.

“It is about transparency and accountability to ratepayers,” said Epstein. “Last year, the cost was $50,000. Now its $15,000.”

But he had to persuade some reluctant colleagues. Councillor Gord Fox urged council use the money “on more important things.”

Ameliasburgh councillor Roy Pennell figures half of County residents won’t see it because it will require high speed Internet access. Others worried about councillors grandstanding for the benefit of the online audience.

Finance commissioner Susan Turnbull, citing experience in another municipality, said that while meetings did take a bit longer after live-streaming was launched, the meetings soon returned to their previous time and patterns.

Despite some reservations, council agreed to fund live streaming of council meetings beginning in the new year.