City of Cold Lake council meetings now streamed online

Cold Lake residents can now listen to what their council decides to do at meetings from home.

City council passed a motion last Tuesday to live stream special and regular council meetings, as well as all regular Corporate Priorities Committee meetings.

The first regular meeting went live on Tuesday and will be available for a week after it airs, said Mayor Craig Copeland.

“We’ve had some requests from the public to try to go live,” said Copeland on The Morning After.

“The other councils, like you say, in the area are doing it. We just took our time, and staff did a great job making sure that they outfitted the council chambers with the appropriate equipment.

“I think we spent about $15,000 on getting it all up. And the videos I think, are going to stay on YouTube for about a week. So this is the hope.”

City council meetings are the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, and the corporate priorities committee meets on the third Tuesday.

Town of Bonnyville, M.D. of Bonnyville, Town of St. Paul, Town of Elk Point, Town of Vermilion, are among local councils who have pushed ahead with streaming council meetings, after shutting their physical doors to the public in the spring at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We try to get our information out there. Whether or not people agree or disagree with what we have to say, but our council has always been very frank and open. We get a lot of questions that are given to councillors and myself, we try to put them on the agenda,” said Copeland.

“This is what your role is, is to be transparent.”