Government

We try to make all the government related news and recordings accessible through this page.

If you are on Facebook then look in the Soapbox group for the live stream.
We’re going to try echoing that stream in the video below . . .

This is a play list of all the council videos from 2020

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This is a play list of all the council videos from 2019

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This is a play list of all the council videos from 2018

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This is a play list of all the council videos from 2017

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This is a play list of all the council videos from 2016

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This is a play list of all the council videos from 2015

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ABOUT THE RECORDINGS

With the new year and new council I’ve begun to return to live webcasting. Currently I’m live streaming to Facebook (because that’s where so many people meet to discuss things in this town). That may change with time – I’m hoping to live stream simultaneously to YouTube  and gftv.ca as well for those who do not use Facebook. And because people keep bringing it up I’m looking at acquiring some newer technology to make a more consistently better production.

Early in 2016 I changed my relationship with City Council. For the past 10 years I’ve operated as the public’s channel into city council meetings. Originally the meetings were broadcast live on Cable Access channel 10 but in 2011 Shaw took Grand Forks digital and live casting on air was no longer possible. From that fall until this spring I’ve been recording for cable and live webcasting the city council meetings.

From 2016 until the end of 2018:
Now I record and do not live webcast. I put the recordings on the web and provide a copy to Shaw Cable TV. I use two cameras, not 4 as before. The only close-ups I do are of the projector screen. I no longer accept an honorarium for this service – it didn’t cover my costs anyway. To be absolutely clear: I do not work for city council. I provide this service to my community because people have come to expect it and I can make it happen. Eventually the city will arrive at their own solution. Until then I will endeavour to provide this service because I think it is worth doing.

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If you’re new to this site then please consider these points:

• Usually when city council meets the meeting is also broadcast live to the web
• AND it is recorded locally for later broadcast on Cable TV.
• Sometimes the local recording is used to make a better version for the web.
  Why? Sometimes the quality of the live webcast is not the best OR something causes the webcast to fail. For that reason the local recording is used to make a better version for the web if necessary. People could be forgiven for thinking of these as the ‘edited’ versions since they’ve gone through the video editing program and come out later.
• For the record: We don’t delete anything between the gavel strike at the start and end of the meeting UNLESS the meeting is recessed for some reason. That means you won’t see and hear what happened while the meeting was in recess BUT you will hear and see what happened while it was in session.  IF at any time the video or audio break for any period of time a clear notice will appear so you are aware of it. In the real world things happen: people trip on cords, power fails, the internet connection stalls, tripods fall over, batteries die and memory cards fill up.
• We reserve the right to not re-broadcast anything that might lead to a law suit – sometimes people say things in public meetings that could leave them open to litigation. We can’t prevent those words being heard if those meetings are being live webcast because we don’t have a time delay. But we reserve the right to protect ourselves from litigation regarding our spreading these words to a larger audience if we chose to rebroadcast those incidents later without editing away the offensive language.

From the time council meetings began taking place at the office building on Roxul’s property – Every time council happens I bring almost everything I need to do the broadcast. And set it up and take it down. Only one camera is fixed in place and the view from that one isn’t the best.  The layout of councillor and staff seating does not lend itself to easy camera coverage so sometimes it’s hard to get a good, clear shot of one person without another being in the way. Even with 4 cameras. Because there’s only one person doing everything (camera, switcher, broadcast, facebook monitor, paying attention to council) sometimes something suffers … but we try.