members and shall be permitted to participate in any portion of a meeting which is closed to the public”;
d) Any member of Council who wishes to participate in a meeting electronically shall provide the City Clerk or the Deputy City Clerk a minimum of 24 hours’ notice where possible;
e) Each member participating in a meeting electronically shall be available at least fifteen (15) minutes before the beginning of the meeting to assist staff in establishing the electronic connection;
f) Each member participating in a meeting electronically will mute his or her electronic device when he or she is not speaking;
g) The Chair will canvass Members participating electronically about their intention to speak to a matter on the floor and will notify each Member when it is his or her turn to speak;
h) If there is participation via electronic means, voting shall occur via the “recorded vote” process;
i) Member(s) participating electronically will be deemed to have left the meeting when they are no longer electronically connected to the meeting;
j) Electronic participation would be permitted for Council, Standing Committees and if necessary, advisory committees;
k) The Clerk shall be required to be physically present in the location where any meeting with electronic participation takes place;
l) Delegates shall not be permitted to participate electronically. If circumstances do not allow a Delegate to appear in person, a written submission may be made in accordance with Section 10.11;
m) All public Council meetings will continue to be streamed via Sliq Media Technologies on the City of Windsor website and will then be archived on the website for viewing on-demand as part of the city’s digital library.
n) YourTV/Cogeco, along with all media outlets, will continue to be permitted to cover all public Council meetings in Council Chambers;
o) As this new methodology unfolds, the proposed by-law amendments recognizes that electronic participants may be inadvertently disconnected, and that Administration will endeavor to limit such situations to the best of their abilities.
Passing these amendments has made it possible for Windsor City Council to continue to meet regularly during the pandemic. In fact, while the original regular Council Calendar for the period March 17 to July 17, 2020 had only 8 open meetings of Council scheduled, Council has actually held 12 open meetings in that time period..
Discussion:
Pending Legislation:
While Bill 187 allowed for electronic participation of Council members which would count towards quorum, under the legislation, these virtual meetings were only to be allowed for as long as there was a declared state of emergency in the province and municipality. However, the Province has now introduced Bill 197 which proposes further amendments to the Municipal Act which will allow for electronic participation at Council meetings without the requirement of a declared emergency.