East Gwillimbury council nixes live-streaming council meetings for now

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 13, 2016
By Simon Martin

Excited about the prospect of watching a live-streamed East Gwillimbury council meeting in 2017? Don’t hold your breath. During budget deliberations Dec. 13, council voted to defer the prospect of live streaming council meeting until next year. The motion to fund live streaming was defeated in a 3-2 vote with Couns. Joe Persechini, Marlene Johnston and Mayor Virginia Hackson winning out against Couns. James Young and Tara Roy-DiClemente.

The budget line item had an estimated cost of $7,500. The debate at the council table was very similar to past debates on live streaming that council has been having for the better part of six years.

Roy-DiClemente, who has been pushing live-streaming council meetings for the better part of her two terms on council couldn't understand the lack of interest in reaching more residents.

“Unfortunately we only have one resident who may like to engage with us in the process,” she said pointing out that only one East Gwillimbury resident out of 25,000 bothered to show up to the Tuesday budget deliberation. “We are doing a disservice to our residents.”

Young echoed that sentiment saying the time was ripe for council to make the change. “It should be all of our meetings. Not just council,” he said.

Other members of council had a different interpretation of timing. “I have mixed feelings about it. I’m not sure this is the year to do this,” Hackson said.

Persechini was blunt in his ambivalence toward the idea of streaming. “What is it going to do for us?,” he said.

Johnston was concerned that live streaming meetings could potentially lead to people taking what councillors said out of context and more grandstanding from representatives. “Every member of council will wish to speak on every issue. We don’t always do that here,” she said.

Earlier in the budget process Chief Administrative Officer Tom Webster also voiced some concerns about how long the meetings should be archived on the town’s website, because the clerk’s minutes of the meeting should be the official record. Webster also said concerns have been raised that clips could be edited to produce sound bites out of context.

East Gwillimbury and King are the only two councils in York Region that don’t have any form of live streaming service. The service hasn’t exactly taken off in other municipalities.

For example, Aurora averages fewer than 10 viewers for its meetings, while Georgina typically draws five viewers, Newmarket attracts 13 on average, Markham pulls in an average of 14 and Richmond Hill gets 20 on average.

Whitchurch-Stouffville added live audio streaming earlier this year. While York Region live audio streams its meetings, York Region councillors are considering live video streaming and archiving whole council and committee meetings.

The decision is still more than a month away as the region investigates how best to broadcast the meetings and the cost, which could be in the neighbourhood of $125,000.

Hackson wants the town to take a look at what the region is doing and for staff to come back to council with more information next year.