Tuning in: GTHA councils boost public access

NRU
March 9, 2016
By Leah Wong

The Town of Whitby recently approved a pilot to livestream meetings of council and standing committees and archive them online, in an eff ort to make the local government more transparent and accessible than before to residents.

With the introduction of livestreaming and archiving technology, residents can check in online to watch meetings while they are in progress or replay the sessions at a later time. The tools are being adopted by a growing number of Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area councils to give residents a window on local decision-making.

“There is an expectation that we’ll continue to try and become more transparent and accessible, and webstreaming is another part of meeting that expectation,” Whitby mayor Don Mitchell told NRU. “We’re going to try it on a pilot basis and monitor what kind of response and feedback we get.”

In the past, Whitby council meetings have been regularly broadcast by Rogers Media. Last year, council asked the town clerk to study whether or not it would be viable to webstream its council and committee meetings so that residents can watch the proceedings on their computers. Council has decided to run a one-year pilot to gauge public interest for webstreaming and to determine the impact on staffing and resources.

Mitchell and the town’s regional councillors already have experience with streaming and archiving, which was introduced by Durham Region for standing committee meetings in 2013. The region initially launched a six-month pilot to webstream the meetings, but later extended the project for another three years.

The mayor acknowledges that some residents value the ability to watch meetings online, but he isn’t sure how well utilized the service is at present. He says he wants that data to assesses the merits of his town’s pilot project.

“We’ve been [livestreaming] at [Durham] Region for a while. I’m not particularly aware that it has significant followership based on the feedback I get,” said Mitchell.

“What I want to see is that there is some viewer interest, that our residents find it a valuable thing and [that] it would be worth continuing in terms of the expenditures relative to [other] things you can do in terms of reporting and outreach.”

The town has allocated $30,000 for the pilot—half to purchase video and audio equipment for livestreaming and half to be used for a third-party webcasting subscription. These are one-time costs, according to a report to Whitby operations committee from town clerk Christopher Harris. However, an extension of the pilot would add to the operating budget in future.

The Town of Georgina is one municipality that sees livestreaming and archiving meetings as well-worth the investment. The town first started streaming its meetings in 2011, archiving them online in 2015. For Mayor Margaret Quirk, streaming and archiving meetings is one way to engage the public.

“Not everyone can make it up to the civic centre during the times of our meetings,” Quirk told NRU. “We have meetings that start at 9 a.m., when lots of people are working, and meetings that start at 7 p.m., when people are at home with their kids or families ... We need to consider those people and make sure they have the opportunity to watch the meetings.”

Like Whitby, Georgina has a partnership with Rogers to broadcast council meetings on the local cable station. These are re-broadcast several times and Rogers subscribers can watch them online. However, Quirk felt it was important to archive the meetings on the city website as well, as not all residents are subscribers.

“I’m constantly surprised, and actually grateful, by the number of people who say they do watch the meetings, whether they livestream or they do watch it on Rogers,” said Quirk.

“The archiving is important, and not just for the residents. It allows other members of council, and even staff , to go back and clarify what was said, or the point that was raised.”

Quirk sits on York Region council, which is in the process of re-evaluating its streaming practices that are currently limited to a live audiofeed of council with no online archive of meetings.

When the region decided to start audio streaming council meetings in 2014, deputy clerk Chris Raynor said there was no discussion about archiving them. At the time, council opted for audio instead of video streaming due to the cost of installing video equipment.

“To do video, because of the configuration of our council and committee spaces, it would have required permanently mounting cameras,” Raynor told NRU. “There were a lot of costs associated with that and it would have taken longer [to get started]. Audio was something that could be done fairly quickly.”

In February York committee of the whole directed staff to report back on opportunities to stream committee meetings, the possibility of video streaming and options for archiving meetings online. This report is expected back with options, timelines and associated costs before the summer.

Quirk sees livestreaming and archiving as a good investment for local governments.

“People in this day and age are looking for, more and more, the ability to be engaged in local decision making,” said Quirk. “There are ways that [councils] can do it and be very frugal, as we have been, or [they] can spend a lot of money. I think its money well spent to give residents to give residents the ability to have that level of engagement.”