The Town of Banff won’t be video streaming or recording council meetings any time soon.
Council last year expressed an interest in having council meetings broadcast by live streaming, but a proposed in-house technology trial to test digital video streaming did not get support on a tied 3-3 vote at a Nov. 9 governance and finance committee meeting.
Councillors Corrie DiManno, Ted Christensen and Grant Canning supported the idea to get more information on usage statistics of video streaming and recordings of council meetings by other similar-sized municipalities.
DiManno said she thinks video streaming and recording is a way to engage people who can’t make council meetings, thereby allowing them to watch the recording whenever convenient.
“It would be another option for people to access town hall meetings,” she said, noting council meets at 2 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of the month and not everyone can get to them.
“Not everyone reads the minutes, and you miss the discussion in the minutes. Video streaming would be a way to give people a feel of what’s going on and how decisions are reached.”
Video streaming is the digital recording and broadcasting of live meetings through the Internet and the subsequent availability of the recording through an Internet connection.
The trial would not have been broadcast to the public, but aimed to allow administration to better understand what the needs and costs would be to develop, host and implement the service in-house versus having a third party provider.
Councillors Stavros Karlos and Brian Standish did not support the trial, nor did Mayor Karen Sorensen. Coun. Chip Olver was absent from the meeting.
“I’m not opposed to it in theory, but I just haven’t heard any citizens asking for that,” said Karlos. “They had a small number for the trial, but to implement this on an ongoing basis is not an insignificant spend.”
Tara Johnston-Lee, Banff’s municipal clerk, said one of the benefits is for staff, who could stay connected to meeting proceedings from their offices, allowing them to make good use of their time while waiting on their agenda item to come forward for discussion.
“It also allows members of staff not attending meetings to view meeting proceedings at a later date in order to obtain information related to items they are involved with,” she said in her report.
Johnston-Lee said a potential disadvantage of recording meetings is that it may inhibit discussion.
“Some members of council or the public may feel ‘on the record’ or not want to ask a ‘dumb’ question and thus be less likely to talk freely or seek clarification about issues,” she said.
“Some municipalities have also reported increased instances of grandstanding once video recording of meeting was implemented.”
