Live Webcasting of Quesnel City Council Meetings??

Following up on the successful trial of the webcasting of "All Candidates Forums" in the City of Quesnel civic election - Pat Morton, wife of former Quesnel City Councillor/former Quesnel Mayoralty Candidate Ron Paull, has asked the City of Quesnel for permission to webcast Quesnel City Council meetings.  I should point out that the Township of Langley and the Cities of Vancouver, Chilliwack, Surrey, Castlegar, Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George and Fort St John already webcast their City Council Meetings, as a few examples.

As an aside - both Quesnel & Williams Lake City Staff have asked their City Councils' to approve monies to purchase web cameras to allow live showing of Quesnel and Williams Lake City Council Meetings (Quesnel - $15,000 & Williams Lake - $25,000).  In addition, during the recent Cariboo Regional District (CRD) Town Hall Meetings' - one individual has asked the CRD Board to consider webcasting its' meetings when the Board meets in Williams Lake

In the meantime - Quesnel Council has voted down the purchase of web cameras by a vote of 6-1 (only Quesnel City Councillor Sushil Thapar was in favour of installing web cameras in Quesnel Council Chambers).  In addition - Quesnel City Manager John Stecyk reports on some concerns he has around Ms. Morton webcasting Quesnel Council meetings' live on her own from Quesnel Council Chambers - read his report here

In the meantime - if Quesnel Council permits Ms. Morton or others to webcast Quesnel Council Meetings with some ground rules in place - I believe it'll put the City of Quesnel at the "front of the line" for outlining how Quesnel Council Meetings should be taped and certainly with the idea of "citizen reporters" - webcasting of meetings would be a step forward in that regard... or it could easily make residents' concerned about their City Hall becoming "control freaks" around how meetings should be taped ... but certainly, we are in "new territory" around citizens taping meetings as other municipalities, as far as I can tell, do not have rules either prohibiting the online webcasting of municipal council meetings by citizens or the conduct of how municipal council meetings' should be broadcast online, again by citizens ... but when I tape Williams Lake Council Meetings - the general rule applied is "keep the camera on who is speaking"

I'm looking forward to hearing Quesnel Council's decision and the potential implications of their decision on other municipalities and whether or not a municipality alone or citizens/municipality should be permitted to live stream municipal government meetings.

SBF