Council meetings moving to online platform (file photo/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Keaton Brown

digital conferencing

City Council meetings moving to online platform

Mar 27, 2020 | 2:01 PM

The COVID-19 situation is causing many schools, businesses and municipalities to explore virtual spaces for their day to day operations.

The City of North Battleford is no exception, saying they will be moving their city council meetings online using Zoom.

North Battleford Mayor Ryan Bater said with all the social distancing and self-isolation going on in Canada it didn’t make sense to hold meetings at city hall.

“It came about because we need to distance ourselves from each other. It didn’t make sense to have all the city council and our senior administrative team all in the same room at a time when we’re being encouraged to distance ourselves,” he said.

Bater said council discussed the situation and all the different options they had for hosting meetings, ultimately settling on the Zoom platform.

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“We have decided to use Zoom as the platform. We have tested it out throughout the week. We feel it is working in terms of council being able to communicate with each other and administration,” he said.

One of the main concerns for taking council meetings online is how limited the options become for the public to participate. Bater said that they are aware of that issue and are currently working on a solution.

“What we are working on right now though, is a means through which the public can actually view this. Right now the only real practical way to do this is to project the digital Zoom meeting onto a screen at city hall in council chambers,” he said.

Unfortunately, this solution comes with its own set of issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bater said people would have to leave their house and come down to city hall and watch the meetings in the council chamber while maintaining safe distancing from anyone else there.

“We are looking to see if there is a digital way to do this where the public can watch and just observe. We haven’t really finalized that yet, but we are working on it,” he said.

Bater said all of the plans they have in place are fluid because the COVID-19 situation continues to change day by day.

“Obviously everything is evolving as circumstances change. This is the plan going forward, if we find it isn’t working we will find a different medium or platform, but right now we’ve already used it twice this week internally and it is working well,” he said.

—

Keaton.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow