Bishop's Falls councillor attends meetings electronically

Bishop's Fallstown councillorRobert Canning is attending meetings, but not in person.He takes partelectronically.

"We have one of our councillors who for a short period of time he's working out of town," mayor Bob Hobbs told CBC's Central Morning Show.

"So that we could avail of his services we do our meetings with him on a speaker phone."

If this person is here for the majority of the year, well lets give him an opportunity to participate.- Bob Hobbs

This is the first time the town hasexperienced thissituation and technology such as Skype, FaceTime orconference calls makeit easy to be somewhere electronically.

Following rules

According to Hobbs, Newfoundland and Labrador'sregulations state thatcouncillors can be removed from council if they miss three consecutive meetings.

Theyalso need to participate inleast one meeting per monthbut it can beelectronically as long as the councillorcan hear and be heard.

Hobbs said the use of such connectionsmay become more common in smaller towns in the future.

"Some people who do work away might have to be gone for twoor three months," said Hobbs, adding thatit's sometimes difficult to find people who want to be part of council and you have the added problem of peopletravelling for work.

"If this person is here for the majority of the year, well lets give him an opportunity to participate."

Way of the future

Hobbs also said that technology has enabled Canningto stay active in the community.

"Alot of people's communication with each other is by email or text or any of the other social media and he's able to keep in contact with a lot of the people who did support him," said Hobbs.

Hobbs added that this will be a six month trialto see how it works for boththe town and Canning.

"We certainly have a good councillor that we'd like to keep and we're certainly wanting to find every way that we can avail of what he has to offer to the council."