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Bonnyville council broadcasting meetings

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The Town of Bonnyville will start broadcasting their council meetings on their website in the coming weeks. Photo by Robynne Henry.

BONNYVILLE – Residents will soon be able to watch council deliberate from the comfort of their own home.

During their regular meeting on Feb. 25, the Town of Bonnyville approved their public meeting broadcasting policy that will see them live streaming their meetings for the public in the coming weeks. 

Regular, special, budget, and public meetings will be available on a streaming service posted to the town’s website. Any sessions conducted outside of council chambers, private meetings, or in-camera sessions won’t be available for viewing.

The town purchased their own video equipment and found a streaming service that would allow people to view the live video on the town website, town.bonnyville.ab.ca.

The topic originally came to council during a November 2019 meeting. Council raised some issues regarding copyright issues and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP), which administration addressed in the updated policy.

“We have to have proper signage posted to make members of the public aware the proceedings are being recorded,” explained assistant CAO Bill Rogers, adding the town will own the rights to the recordings.

“We do also have statements in this policy proposing that we grant permission to the media or other entities to use, produce, and report the broadcast and use them for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes,” he continued.

The videos aren’t an official record, meaning the minutes will continue to be the recognized documentation of the meetings.

Since the minutes only note so much, Mayor Gene Sobolewski wondered if the videos could be kept on file as an option as well.

“There could be circumstances where the official minutes didn’t talk about a particular incident that transpired, and yet with the advent of the video it wouldn’t be the official transcription or anything.”

After a meeting concludes, it will be available for viewing for 14 days on the town’s website.

“Once the next meeting comes, delete the previous one because they could get confused as to which meeting it was,” noted Coun. Lorna Storoschuk.

Coun. Elisa Brosseau added, “If somebody can’t watch the live streaming during the council meeting, but they can over the next couple of days, I think that’s important.”

As it’s a new venture for the municipality, Coun. Ray Prevost believes the policy is a good starting point.

“We’ve never had this before and we’ve got to get started somewhere. Let’s approve this and move on. We can adjust it if issues come up later.”

Once the signs are in place, broadcasting will begin at an upcoming meeting.

Robynne Henry, Bonnyville Nouvelle

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