Ignace Council Reinstates “ZOOM” Access to Its Regularly Scheduled Meetings
“Township Council unanimously vote to reinstate virtual access”!
September 19, 2023 Ignace, ON At its regularly scheduled meeting of Township Council on Monday September 18, 2023, members unanimously voted in favour of reinstating Zoom (or other virtual platform) access to all meetings for its ratepayers to attend. The move comes after being without Zoom access since April 2023, when Council decided that because of unavailable staff and financial resources that were required to maintain, and monitor the system, that it would be prudent to remove the function. At that time, Council also stated that it would prefer having ratepayers attend the Council meetings in person instead, as many communities had removed the Zoom function for meetings post Covid.
“I felt strongly that we needed to re-engage our community and invite them back either in person or by Zoom (virtually) as it is an important function that we could provide for our ratepayers. I think they want to be able to visually see and hear their representatives in Council and understand the rationale behind our decisions for this community”, stated Councillor Janet Lett. Township Council passed a resolution that asks staff to re-engage the Zoom (or other platform) functionality for the public to be able to see and hear Council, but not be able to interact with or disrupt the meeting at any time during the course of the session. The function should be restored, and a link provided to the public for the next regularly scheduled meeting of Council in October 2023.
“We are very cognizant of the fact that we wanted the public to stay engaged, whether in person or virtually, with Council and our decision-making process, especially as the long winter months approach and access to meetings become more cumbersome for some of our aging population” stated Interim Mayor Kim Baigrie. “We have some significant decisions on the horizon, including the willingness project for the deep geological repository with NWMO, our on-going budget discussions and the potential to dispose of Township-owned property and we would be remiss if the public were not kept to date on these decisions” Baigrie went on to state.
Township Council is committed to ensuring its ratepayers are kept advised and are communicated with on all of its decisions and on a regular basis.
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Press Release - The Township of Ignace - Township Council Reinstates Zoom Public Meetings