The proposed removal of live streaming for council meetings is a serious threat to transparency, accessibility, and accountability in local government in South Algonquin.  

Council decisions directly impact your finances, taxes, jobs, businesses, retirements, properties, homes, cottages, recreation, and quality of life for residents and visitors. Without live streaming, it becomes harder for you the public to stay informed and ensure councillors are held accountable.

The council meetings are where the decisions are made. Committee meetings are even more important because this is where we learn why they make the decisions.

Just think back to the fire bylaw where they wanted to charge for campfires. Or the yard standards bylaw where they proposed questionable standards with no way to enforce them. The public watched the discussion, reacted and the councillors listened.

The councillor proposing to remove live-streaming was one of two councillors found in conflict of interest by the integrity commissioner in fall 2023 for participating in a discussion they had a financial interest in. Faced with two choices, either change the behaviour or take steps to hide the behaviour, the councillor unfortunately selected the latter.

Hiding and overlooking bad behavior that is contrary to the rules of good governance and the municipal act is certainly easier when meetings are not live-streamed.

So now the councillor is proposing that all or part of the discussions and decisions be hidden from view from everyone except those who can attend meetings in person, while councillors will still have the option of attending meetings remotely. So if this passes, it is entirely possible that you could attend a council meeting in person that was held entirely virtually, with 0 councillors in the chambers physically.

Who does that benefit? Certainly not the ratepayers in South Algonquin.

Live streaming has ensured open discussions and public access to important decisions. Removing this access limits transparency and your access to local government.

We encourage you to call or write to council members to express your opposition to this move in person. (List available here https://www.southalgonquin.ca/article/members-of-council/ )

Signing this petition before September 23 will also let council know that the public is organizing against this decision and that we want:

1. Council and committee meetings to remain live-streamed
2. Our local government to remain transparent, accessible, and accountable for the benefit of our community.

The petition will be presented to council in time for the October meeting where they will discuss the motion.