Council votes to pay Shaw TV for coverage

In a close vote tonight, Sault Ste. Marie City Council agreed to pay Shaw TV to reimburse the volunteers who produce live cable coverage of City Council meetings.

The decision was made despite opposition from Ward 4 Councillor Lou Turco, who pointed out that Shaw is a big private corporation that's required to provide many hours of free community broadcasting under its Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission licence.

Six councillors voted to pay Shaw $5,000 to reimburse its volunteers over the next year.

Turco and four others voted against the idea.

Tonight's Council meeting was not broadcast by Shaw, which for years has provided the service using volunteer camera operators.

As SooToday.com reported from Council's last meeting on September 13, the cable provider has been having difficulties finding volunteers to help with its live simulcasts. (background)

Lack of coverage attributed to producer's vacation

But City Clerk Donna Irving told us that tonight's lack of coverage was not due to a lack of volunteers, rather to the fact that Shaw producer Tony Tagliabracci is on vacation.

Council is required by a City bylaw to record all of its meetings, so a private videographer was hired to to produce a record of tonight's gathering that will eventually become part of the public library's collection.

Ward 1 Councillor Steve Butland said that paying Shaw to reimburse its volunteers was far less expensive than the $75,000 paid by some other municipalities who provide a video feed using their own fixed-position cameras.

However, Ward 6 Councillor Jason Collins questioned whether Council might be setting a precedent by paying media representatives to cover its meetings.

Could high school students do the job?

Collins and his Ward 3 counterpart Pat Mick suggested that the community be given a chance to respond to tonight's lack of coverage.

New volunteers might emerge, they argued.

It was suggested that local high school students might be recruited to fulfil their community-service requirements.

It was also suggested that Council consider issuing a call for proposals to determine whether other companies might be able to do the job more economically.

Councillor Turco expressed concern that media organizations such as the Sault Star, MCTV and SooToday.com that currently cover council might no longer do so if a competing media company is singled out for payment.

Mayor John Rowswell argued that it was appropriate to recognize the work of Shaw volunteers with an honourarium, but he said he'd consider issuing a call for proposals next year.