St-Lazare to webcast council meetings

St-Lazare residents will soon be able to tune in to watch council meetings from the comfort of home.

Starting June 12, the town will begin live streaming council meetings via YouTube, which will enable residents to watch on smartphones, tablets, computers, or internet-connected televisions.

Coun. Geneviève Lachance, who has been a vocal advocate for the webcasting of council meetings, said even if the actual number of viewers is low, providing an option for citizens to watch council sessions online is an important step to engage citizens who may be unable to spend an evening at the town hall due to family or work obligations.

Many Montreal-area boroughs and cities as well as neighbouring towns like Hudson and VaudreuilDorion have also recently begun streaming council sessions online, Lachance noted.

Hudson has been using Facebook Live to record council sessions since shortly after the last municipal election, while Vaudreuil-Dorion signed a partnership with community television provider Csur La Télé in January to broadcast the meetings online and on TV.

“You have to be where citizens are. They’re online,” said Lachance. “For me it’s so obvious that it’s the best way to reach the most amount of people. A lot of cities are doing this already, we’re not breaking new ground here. It’s a no-brainer to me.”

According to a policy adopted on May 8, future council meetings will be recorded and archived online for at least a year.

Council chambers will include marked areas that will not be filmed for those who do not wish to be on camera.

Question period will be filmed, and Lachance said the town is considering allowing citizens to submit questions via email or other means to allow residents to ask questions who can’t attend in person.

The town is also considering adding subtitles to the video for viewers who may be hearing-impaired.

“It’s just to engage people more and to encourage people to watch,” Lachance said. “To me it’s a very efficient way to reach people. They have their phones in their hands all the time.”

A link to the live stream will be added to the town’s website ahead of the July 12 council meeting, along with the meeting agenda at ville.saint-lazare.qc.ca/en/seances.