Committees to be live-streamed

Standing legislative committees moving to legislature to allow for video recording

A group of Kings County residents will be crossing their fingers in hopes of becoming P.E.I.’s newest, and possibly last, resort municipality.

A petition was presented to Communities Minister Robert Mitchell last week calling for the unincorporated areas of Georgetown Royalty and Burnt Point to become its own resort municipality.

If accepted, the area would likely be the last resort municipality created on P.E.I. before a new Municipalities Act, which is set to go into effect later this fall, eliminates the designation going forward.

Organizers Ray Brow said he felt the meeting with Mitchell went well.

While Brow said Mitchell initially seemed hesitant, he felt the minister understood the group’s rationale and was told that he would hear back from the province by the end of this month.

“It was not what we had expected, it was real positive vibes,” said Brow. “For us, becoming a resort municipality even in the short term makes a lot of sense.”

A spokesperson for the province confirmed the petition was received last week and that the department has not yet received a formal application.

“If an application to form a municipality was received it would follow the current legislation,” stated the spokesperson.

The idea behind forming the resort municipality is to give residents a more equal say in the Three Rivers amalgamation discussions. Those discussions include four unincorporated areas as well as the seven communities of Georgetown, Montague, Lower Montague, Brudenell, Cardigan, Valleyfield and Lorne Valley.

During a community meeting held last week, many residents of Georgetown Royalty and Burnt Point expressed concerns over their negotiating power and “taxation without representation.”

“That’s our biggest bone of contention. We have had all the information, and this is our vehicle to negotiate as an equal in the process,” said Brow. “We don’t expect to be an independent resort municipality in the long term.”

Brow said the area includes about 600 residents, approximately half of whom are considered seasonal.

He said the rural area is unlike many others in P.E.I.

The area only has two farmers and no fishery. However, it does have a number of cottage communities, a marina, two golf courses, Rodd’s Brudenell River Resort, a convention centre, provincial park, campground and numerous other tourismrelated businesses.

“Almost everything in our area is tourism-related,” said Brow.

“We just happen to be very fortunate where we meet the criteria to become a resort municipality. This does not apply to any other rural areas we’re aware of.”

Brow said he hopes to have another community meeting to update residents in September as well as to answer the questions raised during the previous meeting over the amalgamation process.

Islanders will soon be able to watch legislative standing committee meetings live online.

This will mark the first time ever that P.E.I. standing committee meetings have been visually recorded by the legislative assembly.

Emily Doiron, committee clerk and chairwoman of the implementation team for the new video-streaming initiative, says the recordings will be live-streamed on the assembly website and on the assembly’s Facebook page and will then be archived.

“It will allow the public to more easily access committee meetings,” Doiron said.

“We’ve been broadcasting the legislative assembly now for a number of years, so this is just a natural extension of the services provided by the legislative assembly.”

The decision for this change was made by the province’s legislative management committee, which oversees the work of the legislative assembly, thanks to a request by Opposition Leader Jamie Fox.

But it will mean a change in location and setup for committee meetings.

Currently, committee meetings are held at the J. Angus MacLean building, located across the street from Province House, and legislative assembly sittings are held on the main floor of the Coles Building. These are temporary locations while Province House renovations are underway.

To save on camera equipment costs, committee meetings will now be held in the legislative chamber when the house is not in session.

MLAs will sit at their desks, which will be repositioned to allow for a similar feel for committee meetings. Invited witnesses will also be at desks on the chamber floor, allowing for existing camera and recording equipment within the chamber to be utilized.

“Using the chamber was a cost-effective way to provide this service,” Doiron noted.

When the legislature is in session, committee meetings will not be video-streamed or videorecorded as the meetings will revert back to the J. Angus MacLean building when the house reconvenes.

Audio recordings and Hansard transcriptions are available, however.

To date, there have been no discussions about adding cameras to the J. Angus MacLean building.

Committees will begin to be live-streamed after Sept. 1.