Clearview council will resume its regular schedule on May 11, continuing with virtual meetings.
A state of emergency allowed council to switch to online meetings. Bill 187, passed last month, allows for them to continue with regular virtual meetings and include public participation, in writing only. The method would apply for all public meetings.
“We would advise council of the correspondence we received and we would ensure that you have a copy of everything in front of you,” said Mara Burton.
Council has held four emergency meetings, which limits what can be discussed.
“I think it’s important that we do get back to regular council meetings,” said Councillor Doug McKechnie, so they can have public participation, deputations, presentations, and new business.
There are usually only a handful of people at town hall meetings, unless there is a controversial topic on the agenda. Interestingly, the YouTube broadcast of the April 22 meetings has more than 200 views.
Meetings will continue to be live-streamed on Clearview’s YouTube Channel.
“I think we need to be optimistic that we’ll see this emergency coming to an end but I don’t think it’s going to happen quickly so we need to be accepting of the fact that we need to be flexible in our scheduling and how we do our business every day,” said Mayor Doug Measures.
He said, in the meantime, the municipality will communicate with the public on how to participate.