Since the pandemic hit in March, BWG Town Council meetings have been held virtually, and it looks things will stay that way for the time being.
In the virtual meeting of council on Tuesday night, council voted in support of keeping their meetings online with hopes of eventually moving to an in-person, physically distanced format in the future.
Under the province's emergency orders, municipalities were given permission to conduct meetings of council virtually.
The Town of BWG held its first virtual meeting of council on March 26 using Zoom technology, streamed live through the town's YouTube Channel, and have been hosting them in this format ever since.
On July 24, the province's emergency order expired, but the town of BWG emergency order is still in effect. Under the town's current by-law, council meetings are allowed to be held only while under an emergency declaration. Town staff now have the option of amending the by-law to permanently allow for electronic meetings of council, if desired.
Four options on how to proceed with the future format of the meetings were presented to council on Tuesday evening:
- Continue Electronic Meetings for All Members of Council, Local Boards and Committees
- Return to In-person Meetings in the Zima Room at the BWG Library or Bradford Community Centre in the Don Harrison Room (with physical distancing measures in place) and continuation of live streaming on YouTube
- Hybrid of In-person Meetings and Electronic Participation
- Proxy Voting
Deputy Mayor James Leduc was in favour of Option 1, but added "I do look forward to seeing the cost of a hybrid system."
"It's interesting doing Zoom," he said, noting that the new format allows residents to tune in at their leisure via the town's YouTube channel.
Coun. Raj Sandhu pointed out that many residents who would have never been able to make in-person meetings, are now able to watch them online.
"I am happy we are providing this option," he said.
Coun. Ron Orr noted electronic meetings were a good idea for the time being, but added there are some who prefer the in-person format and is interested in looking at the opportunity to resume in-person meetings in the fall if possible, in a larger space like the community centre.
Normally, BWG Council meetings are held at the BWG Library in the Zima Room.
Coun. Mark Contois supported the idea of electronic meetings, which allows for a larger audience.
"The more people we have interested in our community the better," he said. "But I also believe we need to get back to a format sooner or later of normal activity."
"I think sooner rather than later, if we can get the arena to space out the meetings, then we can still record this on YouTube and tape it to residents," suggested Coun. Peter Dykie.
At this time, the exact costs to host the meetings in-person with all necessary equipment for electronic participation are not known. If meetings are moved to the Bradford Community Centre, audio and visual equipment would need to be purchased, which could cost anywhere from $20,000-$40,000.
Simple video equipment would also be required at a cost of around $5,000 to stream the meetings on YouTube.
The report also noted that recordings and streaming of meetings come with provincial requirements under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, with closed captioning costs ranging from $5,200 to $9,000 per year. And for basic captioning with described video costing around $33,600 per year. The current cost for the Zoom Meeting account is $826.00 per year.
Council voted in favour of the recommendation to amend the by-law to allow for electronic meetings to continue.
A staff report will come back to council in September on the costs of in-person meetings at the community centre.
