The yearlong trial is over and North Saanich will continue to webcast its meetings of council.
The camera, with a bird’s-eye view of council chambers on Mills Road, was installed as a trial in early 2011. Council agreed to keep the services that cost roughly $700 a month, or $8,400 a year.
“That is money well spent in terms of engaging the community and engaging people who can’t attend the meetings,” said Mayor Alice Finall. “People need to know how their council is operating and they need to know how issues are dealt with.”
Webcasting became available on May 2, 2010 and North Saanich statistics show each meeting is typically viewed via the webcast 50 to 150 times.
With increasing traffic since September, hits peaked during the Dec. 5 inaugural meeting with 250 views.
The district’s webcasting webpage receives about 600 page views a month by roughly 400 unique users.
reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com