Council Holds first ever call in Meeting

Wawa’s Municipal Council held their first meeting via conference call. Members of Council, Staff and the public participated by calling in, entering an id number and muting their phones. Councillor Chiasson was the only councillor absent.

Council will receive a report from Ms. Cyr. – CC 2020-01 regarding Bill 187 – Municipal Emergency Act.

Council also read for the first, second and third times a By-Law No. 3292-20 – to amend By-Law No. 3253-19, a by-law to adopt Municipality of Wawa Policy No. GG-003: Proceedings of Council and Committees.

The next step required that council log into another “call” in order to hold an “In-Camera Session” to discuss – Education (1 Item) Council Training for Electronic Meetings – for the purpose of educating or training the members (Municipal Act, c.25, s.293 (3.1). CAO O’Neill asked that all members of the public withdraw from the call in order to allow councillors to get the login information for the “in-camera” portion at about 6:14 p.m. Wawa-news did ask how we could rejoin after the “in-camera” session – but there was no answer. Because the call was disconnected – there was no way to follow the rest of the agenda: ‘Business arising from the ‘in-camera session’, adjournment and end the meeting’.

An email was sent to CAO O’Neill at 6:16 asking “how and when do we go back for the remainder of the meeting?”. The response explained that due to the issues with technology the in-camera meeting was abandoned. Council stayed on the phone and ended the meeting at about 6:55 p.m. CAO O’Neill said: “Not sure how we are going to get future meetings streamed but will continue to test equipment and technology.”.