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Broadcast suspended

THUNDER BAY -- City council will continue to meet through the Oct. 27 election, but the public will have to show up in person to see it unfold for themselves.
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THUNDER BAY -- City council will continue to meet through the Oct. 27 election, but the public will have to show up in person to see it unfold for themselves.

City clerk John Hannam said Monday the municipality is temporarily putting the brakes on television and Internet broadcasts of the weekly meetings, citing they want to be fair to all candidates in the upcoming vote. Monday's meeting will be the final broadcast until November. 

“It’s been our practice for many elections and it’s to ensure that incumbent candidates don’t gain an unfair advantage from the exposure that the television broadcast would provide to a council meeting,” Hannam said.

“For those candidates who aren’t current members of council, they don’t have to compete against the weekly repeated news clips of current members of council speaking to issues.”

Regular viewers won’t be completely shut out.

Thunder Bay Television, CKPR Radio and tbnewswatch.com com will continue to provide weekly coverage of the weekly meetings on their various platforms, the public’s right to know how taxpayer dollars are being spent the top reason.

Hannam said because more than 75 per cent of the present council is seeking re-election, this council is not in a lame-duck situation and is not faced with many rules dictating what it can and cannot approve when it comes to spending.

“If after Oct. 27 we’re in that position, with less than three-quarters returning, then there are some limitations as to what council can deal with in the last three weeks of the term. But they aren’t many,” Hannam said.

If council is hit with lame-duck status after the election results are in, they would be restricted from buying or selling property valued at more than $50,000. They also wouldn’t be able to make changes to the current year’s budget and they couldn’t hire or fire staff.

“And the only person they hire and fire is the city manager,” Hannam said.

The city clerk also touched on advanced polling dates during an afternoon interview, saying voters who are unable to make it to the polls on voting day will have their first chance to cast a ballot on Oct. 14 and Oct. 15 at West Thunder Community Centre, followed by two days of advanced voting at the 55 Plus Centre on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17.

The mobile voting van will also be at Intercity Shopping Centre on Oct. 18.

“The van will also be visiting a number of locations during the week and that information, in terms of the times and locations, is listed on our website (www.tbayvotes.com),” Hannam said.

Hannam encouraged voters to become familiar with candidates. tbnewswatch.com will be running profiles of all 51 municipal candidates in the coming weeks, both on the website and in Thunder Bay Source.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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