County councillor wants public meetings to be recorded

GUELPH – Public meetings may be placed in the spotlight as county councillor Jeff Duncan pushes for them to be recorded. 

At the end of a Feb. 26 county council meeting, Duncan introduced a notice of motion.

The procedure is used by councillors to bring topics forward for consideration at the next meeting. 

His motion directs staff to create a report on the feasibility of recording statutory public meetings.

“Two years ago we had a report done for how the county could improve its transparency,” Duncan told the Advertiser.

“It’s just putting that idea in the room.”

Most of the report’s recommendations have been instituted already, but not the one about recording meetings.

According to Duncan, council spoke about livestreaming county council meetings and committee meetings, “but from what I recall we never actually talked about the statutory public meetings.”

Livestreaming council meetings was approved in September, while livestreaming committee meetings was rejected. 

"I think the structure works well and those are more working meetings,” Duncan said of the committee meeting decision.

His motion was sparked by a previous public meeting where the gallery seating area was almost at its limit. 

“It just seems more efficient that it’s available to more people,” Duncan said. 

He noted public meetings typically draw “invested” members of the public as they tend to include policies that affect communities.

Duncan also listed daytime meetings (not accessible to many people), concerns being missed and large amounts of information being summarized, among the reasons for the change.

He noted the idea would be good for county councillors as they only get the minutes from public meetings and point-form presentations.

Public meetings are hosted in the same room as county council meetings, which are already equipped with cameras. 

Duncan hopes to pitch his idea at the next council meeting.