These are new and unusual times we are in, and Barrie city council is no different.
With the city declaring a state of emergency on March 23, council and general committee meetings will be held online for the foreseeable future.
Monday night marked the first virtual meeting of council, which was broadcasted on the city's YouTube channel as well as on Rogers TV, as is tradition. It was the first council meeting since March 9.
Council had to amend the procedural bylaw to allow for an online meeting during an emergency. This allows members of council to participate electronically and count toward quorum at any council or committee meeting, open or closed to the public, during any period where an emergency has been declared.
Mayor Jeff Lehman, who was in a room with City of Barrie CAO Michael Prowse and city clerk Wendy Cooke, opened the meeting by outlining the ground rules in order for the meeting to be held online. Councillors joined the meeting by video conference call.
The 90-minute meeting was fairly smooth, with only a few audio hiccups along the way.
"During the course of the emergency, this will be our meeting format going forward," said Cooke, who added more meetings are being planned for April.
Cooke said no advisory committee meetings will be held until the end of May, depending on the situation.
"We may bring the reference committees on board (with online meetings) sooner than later, but for right now it will only be council and general committee," she added.
Coun. Robert Thomson asked how the online meetings can include public input and engagement on matters. He asked whether all deputations could be received in writing by a set date before each meeting.
"That way we can continue regular business and not pick and choose what we do because of the impact to the public," he said.
Cooke said the clerk's department is looking at different venue to foster public participation.
"I'm in constant communication with clerks across the province, because we're all in this together, so we're looking for best practices from other municipalities," Cooke said.
She suspects the next few meetings will be mostly updates to the COVID-19 situation.
"Going into the end of April and early May, we are going to start introducing some regular business back on the agendas," she said. "We're just figuring out the best way to do it."
Deputants providing their concerns in a written format "is something we're definitely looking at," Cooke added.
