While Pointe-Claire readies to launch the webcasting of monthly city council meetings, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue has announced that after studying the idea it won’t proceed with its own live-streaming project.
Citing divided support among citizens and potential high costs, Ste-Anne council decided Monday to postpone a project to webcast its meetings, which they determined could require funding of up to $25,000 per year for the town of 5,000 residents.
Mayor Paola Hawa said while people who took part in the city’s communication survey earlier this year were almost split 50-50 on the need for webcasting, it was the $25,000-per-year price tag that tipped the balance toward postponing the project. As well, the type of webcasting scenarios being evaluated were not interactive for residents who might be watching the livestreaming from home, she noted.
Hawa said she is very disappointed the project didn’t go through, adding she agrees in principle with the concept of webcasting public meetings.
“I didn’t think that, in this day and age, with electronics, putting a video camera in the middle of a room and doing it over the web, it would be so expensive,” she said.
“Kids do it all the time, with YouTube and this. I didn’t think it was going to be that expensive. I fell off my chair,” she quipped after Monday’s meeting.
It’s possible her council could reconsider the project in the future if the expected cost isn’t as prohibitive, she said. Heralded as an effort to improve accessibility, Pointe-Claire has confirmed it will begin webcasting as of its Oct. 7 council meeting, with a link to the live-stream to be found on the city’s website. These webcasts will then be archived online. Pointe-Claire has hired Webtv.coop at a cost of $1,650 per meeting to provide its webcast services, equipment and staff, said city hall spokeswoman Marie-Pier Paquette-Séguin.
Pointe-Claire had hired Webtv.coop to carry out a webcasting test run at its March meeting but didn’t actually stream it live or archive this meeting.
Last month, Montreal’s Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough announced plans to begin webcasting its meetings as of January through the firm Webtv.coop which already produces webcasts for 10 other boroughs, Montreal council meetings and the weekly gatherings of the city’s executive committee.
In February, Île-Bizard-Ste-Geneviève borough became the first West Island municipal jurisdiction to webcast public meetings, using its own staff and equipment, and opened an archive on YouTube. A link can be found through the borough’s home page on Montreal’s web portal.
Meanwhile, the Lester B. Pearson School Board has been webcasting its regular public meetings since 2008.
It costs the school board $4,900 a year to hire Ottawa-based ISI Global for streaming and archival services, said Pearson chairwoman Suanne Stein Day. The board uses its own in-house staff and computer equipment to webcast its meetings, she added.
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