For the first time ever, the City of Melfort is hosting a council meeting online (Cam Lee/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Melfort council meeting

Virtual council meeting in Melfort the new reality amid COVID-19

Apr 6, 2020 | 12:01 PM

The City of Melfort is hosting its first council meeting outside of chambers Monday, April 6.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the need for a virtual meeting.

“This evening will be our first ever virtual online video council meeting, and we’ll try to keep certain things as normal as possible,” Director of Development, Planning and Community Relations Brent Lutz told northeastNOW.

Councillors will not be gathering at City Hall as they normally would due to social distancing protocols, and will be meeting online in a video conferencing setting. Lutz said any delegations that would normally attend a meeting is invited to observe the meetings live.

The media is also invited to observe, and they can get follow-up information and ask questions after the meeting as they normally would if the meeting was taking place in chambers.

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“Following the meeting we will post a video conference link on our website,” Lutz said. They are not streaming live as there are some security concerns in opening the link to the general public. He said it isn’t known yet exactly when that link will be available on the city’s website because it’s their first time doing so.

Councillors and administration are doing a number of virtual video meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic struck according to Lutz, who said the online meeting will likely be a little awkward initially, but everyone should quickly get used to the process.

He said it’s important to ensure that the city remains as transparent as possible under the circumstances.

“The public deserves to know the decisions the city [is] making and the information that they are considering, and we certainly will continue to do that,” Lutz said. “We’re not sure for how long that this might be the situation but as we move forward if we have to continue doing this for any length of time, we’ll probably get better at it.”

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974