Discussions around the potential for live streaming regular Town of St. Paul council meetings took place on June 24, and ended in a recorded vote being requested, with the majority of council opting against moving ahead with the idea.
Coun. Nathan Taylor previously made a notice of motion at the June 10 meeting, giving councillors time to research the topic and make an informed decision. The issue was then brought to the table during the last council meeting on June 24.
Administration presented an estimate to purchase a camera and the other items deemed necessary for the live streaming process, which totalled about $1,600. In his original notice of motion, Taylor had set the budget to $1,000.
During Monday night's discussions, Taylor questioned some of the items included in the quote, stating he didn't think everything included in the quote was needed.
Mayor Maureen Miller stated her concern over the Town of St. Paul not having a policy in place regarding live streaming of meetings. She noted that other municipalities that do live streaming have policies in place.
"Most municipalities have policies around it," said Miller. She added that people need to be made aware they are being live-streamed onto the Internet. She noted that while she was not arguing against live-streaming regular council meetings, she felt purchasing equipment before having a policy in place putting the cart before the horse.
Taylor stated he felt there was plenty of time before the Oct. 31 date he had in mind as the first meeting to be live-streamed.
When council initially looked at redoing its council chambers, with many of the items now being complete, the purchase of a camera for the purpose of live-streaming was bumped to the bottom of the list, said Coun. Gary Ward, during discussions.
Coun. Tyson deMoissac also spoke up, saying he had talked to a number of residents and "people are happy with the Town Talk in the paper."
When speaking specifically on live-streaming the meetings, deMoissac said, "My personal view, I think it's a waste of money."
Miller said she did like the idea of recorded meetings for the purpose of being able to go back and see what the true intentions of a past discussion were, as opposed to only relying on minutes from meetings.
Coun. Brad Eamon said he had looked up other municipalities that live-stream meetings, and pointed to some larger municipalities that only get a dozen or so online views per meeting, noting St. Paul had a much lower population than some of the municipalities.
In the recorded vote, only Taylor voted in favour of proceeding with the purchase of live-streaming equipment. The motion was therefore defeated.
"Thank you for the discussion," said Taylor.
