INNISFAIL – The pause button has been hit on the town’s beleaguered internal live streaming service.
Following two consecutive weeks of complete failures of the internal live streaming service to even appear live, combined with prior audio problems, town council has unanimously approved a motion directing administration to craft a policy on digital access to Innisfail council meetings for the public and council members.
In doing so, the problematic live streaming service has been shut down until a solution for its resurrection can be found.
Todd Becker, chief administrative officer for the Town of Innisfail, told council at its regular meeting on Dec. 19 the internal live streaming is only hitting about 75 per cent of acceptable service quality.
“I told the staff we should be shooting for 95 plus per cent. We're never going to be 100 per cent perfect, but we're going to shoot for almost perfect,” said Becker. “It’s no fault of staff. I will say what we're working with is internal systems, but also external systems, and it's kind of a makeshift.”
Becker told council the options to consider were maintaining status quo and knowing the service works only 75 per cent of the time or shut the service down until the town is satisfied it can offer the public a service that will work at least 95 per cent of the time.
He added it could be some unspecified time in 2023 before the internal live streaming service is working well enough to offer it again to the public.
“I know it's frustrating for the people who are out there when they see something that doesn't work, and I'm afraid they're just going to get upset and shut everything off,” said Coun. Don Harrison. However, he wanted recordings to be made available for the public’s viewing the day after council meetings.
Mayor Jean Barclay asked whether going back to Zoom was an option; a technology the town was using before it began its internal live streaming service more than four months ago.
Becker said the town has also had issues with Zoom. He added the town also records council meetings and the public can access them the following day on the town’s website.
Coun. Jason Heistad wanted an assurance that when he can not physically attend a council meeting, he could still have access to it, as stipulated under the provincial Municipal Government Act.
Becker said a new policy would be able to assure council members that if they are away from town Zoom would be made available, but only for council members.
He added recorded council meetings will still be available to the public the next day and achieving a reliable live streaming service remains a priority.
“We're still going to build the system behind the scenes as we move forward,” said Becker.
