STAYING CONNECTED IN NORTH SAANICH
Thanks to Times Colonist reporter Kim Westad for the terrific front page coverage in Sunday's edition, headlining our new web casting project. As you know, this is a ground breaker for North Saanich as the only local government doing this in the CRD. My only regret is that we could not find a local service provider for the technology, forcing us to go outside the local business community. I am hopeful therefore that a local Island-based tech company will recognize a niche market for this service and pick up the challenge to provide the technology at a competitive price to local governments in the region.
We have been talking about this initiative for a long time, first entertaining the idea early last year. We recognized that we needed to better connect residents to local government and reach those who do not attend meetings due to time pressures and other factors. The Mayor also remembered the valuable public service Shaw Cable provided during the 1990s when meetings were carried live on the local cable channel. But once Shaw Cable abandoned this market, there were few options available to small communities like ours, until now. Although initially cost prohibitive, our IT Director John Carnell continued to explore the market until he found the provider that had a track record with other small communities and could best serve our needs at a reasonable and competitive cost.
As they say, the rest is history. We launch the service on May 2 and on May 3, you will be able to download video, audio or both, as well as clicking to specific agenda items in the event you don't want everything -- the site is conveniently indexed to make it easier for residents to listen to or watch a discussion on a particular topic of interest. So, we hope it is a big hit with residents over the next year during the trial period. My thanks goes to IT Director John Carnell and his staff as well as to Lisa Coburn for helping to make all of this possible. Lights, camera, action!
