Community advocate and frequent North Bay City Council foil Monique Peters is taking issue with the elected officials' proposed summer scheduling change, and CogecoTV is following suit.
Council meetings are held every other Monday evening at 7 p.m. (Tuesday if the Monday is a holiday) throughout the fall, winter and most of the spring.
Committee meetings are also held bi-weekly, on the Mondays opposite the regular council meetings.
Following the May long weekend until the end of summer, regular council and committee meetings are held on the same Monday night, every two weeks. In this scenario, the committee meetings take place at 6 p.m., with the regular council meeting to follow at 7, regardless of when the committee meeting finishes.
The motion that has drawn the attention of Peters reads that the regular council meeting, instead of waiting until 7 to commence, will instead take place immediately at the conclusion of the committee meeting. The summer session committee meetings have been known to run as short as 10 minutes.
What Peters has issue with is that City Council meetings are appointment viewing for many, most notably seniors and those with mobility challenges who are unable to attend in person.
Another point of contention was the fluidity of the start times, leaving public presenters no choice but to arrive early and sit and wait for their turn at the podium. A 7 p.m. start time would set a firm standard, said Peters.
"I think it's a disservice to those watching at 7 on CogecoTV. There are people that watch council meetings religiously at 7 o'clock. There are those that do not have internet access," to stream the proceedings observed Peters.
"I can't see any reason why it's a waste of time between 6:10, or 6:15 or 6:30 to when the regular meeting starts at 7 p.m., because you're all on salary to be here."
Coun. Mark King, Chair of Community Services was the lone dissenter among Council. When MCTV moved their studio to Sudbury, King noted that it was Cogeco who stepped up to provide live coverage.
King also expressed that he would "hate to see a situation where CogecoTV had to change their news schedule," to accommodate 15 or 20 minutes of time saved.
Joey Roussy, Station Manager at CogecoTV North Bay said in a written statement "Cogeco North Bay News is highly valued by our viewers. The new time for council meetings conflicts with the newscast and as a result, we are not able to provide live coverage."
Coun. Jeff Serran, who tabled the motion, was asked about public perception of the change, especially coming so soon after councillors approved a pay hike for themselves. "One of the big things we're trying to do is find efficiencies. Saving the taxpayers money. It's not about being salaried. If we can streamline these minutes, it saves staff time.
"This move saves media time as well, and one of the great suggestions that Monique Peters made was about spending more time with our constituents. If the meetings get done a little earlier, that gives us more time to spend with our constituents afterwards," said Serran.
"This has nothing to do with wanting holidays. When you're a city councillor, you're never off the job," concluded Serran.
