Attempt to speak with mayor by phone about media lockout fails

The Moose Jaw Express attempted to speak by phone with Mayor Fraser Tolmie to discuss the decision to lockout media from the April 13 city council meeting, but that attempt failed.

The Express was told during the April 9 news teleconference that if it had any more questions about the decision to ban local news outlets from the upcoming — and likely future — meeting, it should call city hall. The newspaper did ask three questions during the news teleconference — city manager Jim Puffalt answered them — but was prevented from asking any further.

The newspaper called communications manager Craig Hemingway just before noon to request a phone interview with Tolmie and was told to submit the questions by email. The Express said it would — it did at 12:10 p.m. — with the reiterated request that it speak verbally with the mayor.

At 4:15 p.m. on a Thursday of a long weekend, the mayor emailed answered his responses

to the questions the Express had submitted. This prevented the newspaper from asking any follow-up questions. The questions from the Express and Tolmie’s replies are below.

Express: Who made this decision to shut out the media from the meeting on Monday? Was every councillor in agreement with the decision?

Tolmie: Due to COVID-19 safety concerns, an operational decision was made to adhere to Saskatchewan Health’s 10-person limit. Several councillors are adhering to the province’s recommendation and will be participating in the council meetings through virtual means. They have made this decision due to their own concerns and for the safety of themselves and their families.

Express: The media have concerns that the single-camera broadcast by Shaw will not capture all of the activity in the meeting, including votes, and that the audio, particularly for the council members attending remotely, will not pick up their comments. Even the weekly news briefs are of poor audio quality. How will council ensure that media, as surrogates for the public, will be able to see and hear all components of the council meeting, including the comments from council members who are attending the meeting remotely?

Tolmie: Thank you for raising those concerns. We were made aware by one of our councillors concerning this issue with Shaw communications. Currently, our city clerk’s department, communications manager and IT department are looking at a way for the media to be included in the same Microsoft Teams meeting as the councillors. We are sorry that this was an issue at our last meeting and we are learning our way forward on this. Thank you again for raising this concern and we will do our best to correct the technical problems.

Express: Since you are worried about the number of people in the room, you should prioritize who is in there. So limit it to a few city hall staffers — mayor, city manager, finance director, two councillors, city clerk, fire chief/ EMO manager, one assistant — and then two media. Has city hall thought about this? Why wouldn’t it follow this process?

Tolmie: In order to eliminate confusion and allow for fairness, all media is given equal access to media releases, media conferences and to the public virtual meetings being held. We are asking media to respect the fact that others (including our staff and council) may feel differently about this pandemic. Due to the sensitivity of this issue, we are using technology as a means to keep the community connected and informed. The Province of Saskatchewan is fully aware of how the City of Moose Jaw and other communities are conducting virtual meetings.

The next city council meeting was Monday, April 13, however, local media was personally locked out of the meeting.