‘Unmute yourself!’ Toronto council members are eager for the return of in-person meetings

Thestar.com
Feb. 4, 2021
David Rider

After meeting online for 10 months, Toronto’s mayor and city councillors are eager to crowd back into meeting rooms and hash out municipal policy within spitting distance of each other.

But the pandemic has forced an innovation almost certainly here to stay: citizens who want to give council members a piece of their mind about taxes, bike lanes or anything else will no longer have to schlep to city hall.

Councillors already voted -- from home or office -- to allow online deputations for one year following the end of the COVID-19 emergency declaration.

Mayor John Tory and seven councillors who answered questions from the Star expressed support for Torontonians permanently having the choice of appearing in person or remotely.

That widens options for people with personal or work obligations. Over the years many people who did manage to get to city hall or a civic centre had to leave before making their deputations because debate on other items dragged on and on.

Meetings being online has undoubtedly changed some decisions, albeit in ways hard to define. Councillors working remotely can’t huddle and craft compromises as they often have on the sidelines or in the backstage lounge.

We don’t know when virus levels will permit Toronto city hall gatherings, and their occasionally wild political theatre, to resume.

Here is the good, bad and pornographic about online meetings so far:

The basics: This week’s council meeting is the 277th virtual council or committee gathering since April 1. They happen on the Cisco Webex platform used by the city for remote meetings for eight years pre-pandemic. Ongoing improvements include councillors being able to remotely get in line to speak on an issue rather than doing a time-consuming verbal roll-call.

The good: “You can have a lot of virtual meetings back to back to back so they can be efficient and it is easier to call snap meetings when people are all in different places,” Tory says. Others cite time saved with no commute and the ability to multi-task. Coun. Paul Ainslie once listened to two meetings and a COVID-19 briefing simultaneously. Coun. Mike Layton enjoys being home to see his kids at lunch and before bed. Coun. Ana Bailao says the best thing is that meetings and deputations can happen, the city can operate.

The bad: Glitches, technical and human, slow meetings and frustrate everyone. Demands to mute and unmute abound. Also, “I rely on public deputations to help in the decision-making process, and they are less effective through a call-in or video screen,” says Coun. Stephen Holyday. Coun. James Pasternak agrees, saying he learns a lot from “nuance, body language, tone and in-person reactions” in person. Ainslie says that, online at home, he can’t garner support for his motions by huddling with colleagues and working on suggested changes before they vote. Coun. Cynthia Lai finds it “more difficult to read the room, how an issue is going.”

The weird: With people mostly at home, and technology between them, strange stuff happens. “Right in the middle of an online town hall meeting, pornographic images appeared on the screen,” says Tory, “followed by a stunned silence on the part of all participating.” The meeting resumed “with a technical person declaring simply, ‘I’m handling it.’” Ainslie was in a meeting where a non-council participant “used the restroom, made their lunch and then had a short conversation with their spouse -- and everyone heard it.” Layton locked himself out of his office during a call and had to drill his way back in. But Bailao’s dog likes to sit in her lap, lightening the mood.

The accessible: Many disabled people find it physically difficult to get to city hall and some just can’t afford it, says Michael McNeely, a member of the city’s accessibility advisory committee. “But we also need equipment and technology know-how to ensure that everyone’s able to participate equally,” remotely, he says. David Lepofsky, chair of disability rights advocacy group AODA Alliance, calls Webex the worst of the online meeting platforms he’s used, with Zoom the best, followed by Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. “It’s appalling from a disability accessibility point of view,” says the blind lawyer. The city says it has asked Cisco for Webex improvements, resulting in the addition of captions for livestreamed meetings, and will keep trying to improve it.

The verdict: Bring back live meetings as soon as it’s safe, keeping a remote option for deputants and councillors, council members say. “Nothing beats an in-person meeting,” says Pasternak. Holyday concurs: “Nothing can replace the process of putting a group of people into a room and keeping them there until a decision is made.” Tory says: “There is a certain dynamic energy that comes from a public meeting in person.” What will he miss? “Only the top matters (online) so you can wear jeans now.”