INNISFAIL – Town council is ready to go live for the public.
Shortly after the initial frantic civic shutdowns began last month over the COVID-19 outbreak, staff discussions began in Innisfail on the need to practise social distancing by closing council chambers to the public. At the same time they were tasked to find a workable way to make meetings accessible for the public.
Innisfail believes it has and hosted a test run on an alternate solution for its recent bimonthly council Agenda & Priority meeting.
With the help of a Zoom communication platform the April 6 meeting was scheduled for live streaming on the internet.
If council deems the test run a success, future regular council meetings during the pandemic will be live-streamed with Zoom technology, said Todd Becker, the town’s chief administrative officer. He added local committee meetings, such as for transportation and municipal planning, could also be live-streamed for the public.
Becker said if council approves moving forward after the test run the town will notify and educate the public about the new technology through social media and its website.
“For so many years the provincial Municipal Government Act (MGA) specified that council meetings are absolutely public and don’t dare have one anymore without the public being notified properly,” said mayor Jim Romane. “The MGA has come up with some optional ways of conducting council meetings, electronically. The hurdle is to make sure we are transparent and there is still public access.
“We’ve had a couple meetings with the Zoom program and it works great.”
