It’s high time to livestream our council proceedings

Now that the cost is more reasonable, council should stop delaying and start streaming

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 27, 2014

Markham council does it and Vaughan council does it.

Many municipalities provide residents with online video or livestreaming of council meetings, so taxpayers can watch their local councillors in action debating the issues from the comfort of their homes.

In fact, Richmond Hill is one of the last municipalities in York Region to embrace this way of making council accessible to taxpayers.

Aurora broadcasts its council meetings via Rogers Cable. Newmarket livestreams its meetings. Even much smaller and more rural Georgina has been providing live videostreaming of council meetings for several years.

What’s up with Richmond Hill?

Our council has been exploring the idea of taping or broadcasting its meetings since 2010. There have been no less than four staff reports presented on the subject, the most recent brought to councillors Monday night.

Each time the matter has come before council, the high cost has been a deterrent. In fact, one report suggested it would cost $500,000 a year to livestream council meetings.

Each time council has asked staff to investigate less expensive options.

That is the responsible thing to do with taxpayer dollars, yet in this day and age, when mere children are posting videos to YouTube, it would seem feasible to provide some manner of video for residents wanting to see their councillors in action.

There’s an appetite for council news from residents, councillors learned Monday.

Audiotapes of council meetings have been posted on the town’s website since September. They have proven to be surprisingly popular, reported the town’s finance commissioner, with 15,000 ”hits” on the town’s website from those wanting to listen in on council proceedings even days after the meetings take place.

So now that council has been handed a staff report that says the videotaping can be done for roughly $1,000 a month - $12,000 a year - it’s time to make this happen.

It’s an election year, prime time viewing for residents who want to see their current councillors’ level of professionalism, knowledge of issues, and even deportment and attitudes to residents and each other.

Will the level of discourse become more polite and respectful and less rancorous in front of the all-seeing eye of a camera? Will councillors stop sniping at each other and stick with the business of running this town, or will grandstanding and posturing get worse given that residents go to the polls in October?

Only time - and livestreaming of meetings - will tell.