Starting January 28th you will be able to view town council and committee of the whole meetings live online from the comfort of your home (or wherever else you happen to put up your feet). Council is making good on a promise to improve accessibility to their meetings and ran a trial of the streaming service on January 14th. A single camera mounted high on the rear wall of the council chambers facing the mayor’s desk provides a clear and complete image of all members including staff seated at the center table. Microphones at each place ensure that the audio is as clear as the images (which were great during the trial). To view a meeting one just needs to log onto the town’s website at Carletonplace.ca and click on the ‘town’ link near the top of the page. Then scroll down to the meeting calendar link and select the appropriate date. Usually just 2 meeting links appear; full council and committee of the whole. When you select each link you will be given three options; an agenda in PDF or HTML format and a video link (active once the meeting starts). Click on that last link and the image will appear. For those tuning in for the first time be aware that council meetings mostly involve ratifications of previous committee decisions and therefore involve little discussion and move fairly quickly; usually less than 30 minutes. However delegations appear from time to time with interesting topics. Committee of the whole meetings on the other hand usually involve new decisions from all corners and involve more debate and presentations from staff as well as the public. Going forward these videos will be archived and available to view at a later date with features that allow the viewer to just narrow in on individual topics (more on that to come).
Article by Brian Turner
