Establishing a Municipal Hansard-Like Service for City Council

The Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team recommends the adoption of the following report (February 8, 1999) from the City Clerk, subject to striking out Recommendation No. (1) embodied therein and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

"(1)the City continue to pursue the goal of a text-based Hansard-like service; and the City Clerk be requested to report back, through the Administration Committee, in one year's time, on the technological feasibility and cost."

Purpose:

This report describe the merits, options and costs for establishing a Municipal Hansard-like service for City Council.

Financial Implications:

There are no financial implications from the Special Committee receiving this report for information. If however, City Council, through a recommendation from the Special Committee, undertakes an action to pursue the implementation of a Hansard-like service for City Council, then there will be financial implications as no budget has been approved for this matter.

Recommendation:

It is recommended that:

(1)the City not pursue a text-based Hansard service for City Council at this time; and

(2)the City Clerk, in consultation with Information Technology and Facilities Management staff, be requested to prepare a report to the Corporate Services Committee on technology options and financial implications for producing audio and/or video recording of City Council, Community Council and Standing Committee meetings, and making such recordings accessible to the public, Members of Council and staff through a Municipal Hansard-like service.

Background:

At its April 24, 1998 meeting, the Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team endorsed, in principle, the idea of a Municipal Hansard-like service provided it can be accomplished at a reasonable cost. The Committee also requested the City Clerk to establish a small working group, in consultation with the City Solicitor and interested citizens, to report back to the Special Committee with respect to the practical implementation issues involved, and referred a number of communications, received by the Committee, to the City Clerk for consideration respecting the establishment of a Hansard-like service. Staff discussed this issue with some of the citizens who appeared before the Special Committee.

Hansard is the official and complete report of proceedings in a parliament or legislature. It is named after Thomas Hansard, the publisher of the report of debates at the British Parliament in the early 19th century. The Hansard Report is a full text report, in the first person, of all speakers alike, a full report being defined as one 'which, though not strictly verbatim, is substantially the verbatim report, with repetitions and redundancies omitted and with obvious mistakes corrected, but which on the other hand leaves out nothing that adds to the meaning of the speech or illustrates the argument.'

All Provincial Governments in Canada use a Hansard service to record the proceedings of provincial parliaments. A Hansard service, in the strict parliamentary tradition, is only practiced in one municipality in Canada, the City of Winnipeg. All other municipalities investigated rely on meeting minutes to record the proceedings of Council.

The reference to a "Hansard-like" service by the Special Committee suggests that options beyond a traditional text-based Hansard service should also be investigated. This report presents some options for a Hansard-like service.

Comments:

In its most basic sense, the Hansard is used to record 'what was said' within a decision-making environment. The Hansard augments the minute-keeping function of a meeting, but it does not replace the recording of decisions from a meeting. All legislative bodies which use the Hansard continue to record through Journals and/or decision documents 'what was done' within the decision-making environment.

The targeted audience for Hansard service includes the public, Members, and staff. It provides a forum to follow and understand the debates of a legislative body and provide a factual reference for Member statements. Legal Services staff have advised that Councillors do not have the same immunity for statements made during Council meetings that MPPs have in the House.

Presently, access to the proceedings of Toronto City Council is available through a number of mediums including attending Council meetings in-person, viewing live meeting broadcasts on community television, referring to meeting minutes after the meeting. Meetings are also videotaped and available to Members and staff for viewing through the Facilities Management Division.

Ontario Hansard Service:

The Ontario Legislative Assembly produces a Hansard for all House sessions as well as Committee Hearings. The Ontario Hansard is produced through a manual process of staff transcribing, editing and indexing digital audio recordings of House and Committee proceedings. The annual budget for the Hansard service is approximately $2.8 million (including simultaneous translation services), of which the majority is for salaries and benefits. The Ontario Hansard employs approximately 17transcribers, editors and researchers. Depending on the volume of work, contractual transcribers may also be involved in producing the Hansard. Hansard transcripts of House debates are normally available the next business day and Committee proceedings within 48 business hours. Ontario Hansard is made available through limited hard copies (for Members) and the Internet.

City of Winnipeg Municipal Hansard:

The City of Winnipeg has used a Municipal Hansard since 1992 to record Council meetings only. The Municipal Hansard hard copy transcripts are made available by subscription, and the public can access the Hansard through the City Clerk's Department and public libraries. The Municipal Hansard is not made available through the Internet. The Hansard is produced on a monthly cycle so that a final version is available before the next Council meeting. In 1997, the gross operating budget for producing the Hansard was over $84,000.00, the majority of which was allocated for staffing costs to transcribe and produce the Hansard. City of Winnipeg staff have advised that although the Hansard is a useful reference tool for understanding Council debates, the most important record-keeping tool continues to be a Council "disposition document" which captures all the Council actions.

Merits of a Hansard-like Service:

The merits of a Hansard-like service depend on the desired objectives. If a verbatim transmittal of meeting speeches, debates, and motions is the objective, a Hansard-like service is appropriate. If the objective is to record the transactional business of Council including the decisions, motions, and votes, then the meeting minutes and decision documents are appropriate. Hansard cannot replace meeting minutes, nor can meeting minutes fulfil the objectives of a Hansard. The City Clerk's Office is currently investigating the approach, content and format of preparing meeting minutes for City Council and committees to ensure they are as effective, accessible, and understandable as possible.

A Municipal Hansard-like service would have considerable merit if it can achieve the following:

(1)deliver a product soon after the subject event has occurred;

(2)be made as widely accessible as possible;

(3)is cost-effective; and

(4)remain an adaptable and flexible service that can take advantage of emerging technologies to serve other Council bodies (e.g., Committees).

Hansard-like Service Delivery Options and Costs:

Staff investigated three types of Hansard-like service to record and make available the proceedings of City Council meetings. These included:

(a)a text-based Municipal Hansard;

(b)audio recordings of Council meetings; and

(c)video recordings of Council meetings.

These options and their relative costs, where known at this time, are presented below with pros and cons identified. It is assumed that a Hansard-like service will only be provided for City Council meetings and not Standing Committee and Community Council meetings. It is also assumed that any revenues from a Hansard-like service, through subscriptions, would be negligible.

(a)a text-based Municipal Hansard:

The option would provide a text-based Municipal Hansard service similar to the Ontario Hansard. A substantially verbatim text document, recording the full proceedings of a typical three-day City Council meeting, would be produced within one month of the meeting. A gross cost estimate for this service is $240,000.00 in annual operating costs with start-up capital costs of approximately $100,000.00. The equivalent of five (5) full-time positions would be required to produce the document. The operating costs are primarily attributable to the manual work requirements to transcribe audio recordings into text files, text editing and document indexing. Capital costs would be necessary for recording equipment, computer hardware and software. Under this option, the Municipal Hansard document would be published to the City's web site and hard copy production would be limited to reference copies and subscriptions.

A text-based Municipal Hansard would be accessible through the City's web site and hard copy reference documents could be made available through City Hall, the Civic Centres and public libraries. Hard copy subscriptions could also be made available, but revenues would only offset some printing costs. Posting the Hansard to the Internet would necessitate having in place the appropriate text search tools. Making available text files of meetings would facilitate their use in other relevant documents by allowing selected text to be "cut and pasted" into other documents without the need for text re-entry.

Unfortunately, this option would not deliver a Hansard document soon after a Council meeting and involves significant operating costs to offset the manual transcription process involved. Reducing the turnaround time for producing a Municipal Hansard from less than four weeks would almost double the operating costs as additional transcribers and editors would be required. Expanding the service to cover Standing Committees and Community Councils would also add significant costs as capital investments would be required for each meeting location, as well as additional operating costs for Hansard transcription and editing. Manual transcription continues to be the industry-standard for producing a Hansard. Voice recognition and transcription software is available for single-source input (i.e., one speaker), but is not yet capable of accommodating multiple-source inputs as would be required for a Council of 58 Members.

Staff investigated the possibility of obtaining a "streaming text" from community television closed-captioning for the hearing impaired, but Rogers Cable has advised that the Council broadcasts are currently not closed-captioned. Gross cost estimates for providing a closed-captioning service for Council meetings include $5,000.00 per meeting. This estimate assumes full coverage of a Council meeting and Rogers Cable does not yet broadcast the entire Council meeting. Closed-capitioning service still requires an intermediary transcription process and since the objective is real-time translation, the text stream would not represent a substantially verbatim record and is limited in distinguishing multiple speakers.

(b)audio recordings of Council meetings:

A second option is to produce audio recordings of the meeting, and technology advancements have turned the Internet into a medium for broadcasting audio files. A number of web sites use "streaming audio" services to broadcast audio information. For example, the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly uses computer audio files, as an extension of its Hansard service, to provide real time access to the Legislature when in session, in addition to archival session files. A similar approach for "streaming" and archiving the audio of City Council meetings is an option. However, this information would only be available publicly through the Internet and computers accessing this service would need a sound card to listen to the audio file.

The technology involved in audio recording and transmittal via computers and the Internet is changing monthly. Cost estimates are being investigated by staff, but preliminary research suggests $100,000.00 for capital equipment including recording hardware, file storage and retrieval systems, indexing software, and "stream" licenses. A key issue is the storage and archival capabilities of large digital file recordings of meetings. Computer-based audio files consume substantial memory space so dedicated equipment would be necessary. Also, the archival files would only be useful if they were indexed. Indexing files is still mainly a manual process so staff costs would need to be addressed. Corporate Services Information Technology staff are investigating the technical requirements and financial issues around this service, and anticipate meeting with various vendors during the next few months to investigate the "state of the technology".

Providing online audio access to Council meetings could enable real-time access to meetings as they occur and near-time access to historical meetings. The service would not require substantial operating costs after initial capital investments, and could be adaptable to serve Standing Committees and Community Councils. Digital audio recordings essentially represent the first step in producing a text-based Municipal Hansard, and under this option could be adaptable to produce a text-based document in the future as the technology evolves to allow for electronic transcription of digital audio files to text files. The drawback of providing an audio-only record of the meeting is that public accessibility would be limited to those persons with computers and sufficient hardware and software to listen to the recordings.

(c)video recordings of Council meetings:

City Council meeting are currently videotaped and are available for viewing by Members and staff through the Facilities Management Division. Videotapes are commonly used by Secretariat staff to substantiate motions and actions from Council meetings during the preparation of the Minutes. The current limitation of videotape is that it is not indexed (i.e.,no Clause or Motion reference) to assist in researching the proceedings and requires playback equipment (i.e., a viewing area equipped with a VCR and TV). Indexing the videotape would involve a manual process with someone who is familiar with the meeting process and subjects reviewing the tape and indexing the time of events and/or superimposing text references to the subject matter. Numerous copies would need to be made of the tape to be made accessible. It is estimated that indexing, reproducing, and distributing Council meeting videotapes would take upwards of three weeks to complete. Total costs would be lower than the text-based Hansard and audio streaming options previously discussed.

Making a copy of an indexed videotape available to the public through the library system is an option, but would require appropriate viewing space (e.g., viewing rooms/areas). In addition, and if videotape were to be adopted as the primary means for the public access to substantially verbatim Council meeting records, access to tapes and appropriate viewing space should be provided at City Hall and each of the civic centres. Such facilities do not presently exist.

Videotape may provide a lower cost option for recording the Council proceedings, but the limitations on access and product delivery suggest it is not a viable solution. Digital video recordings, similar to audio recordings, could result in a more easily produced and widely accessible Hansard-like service. Corporate Services facilities staff have advised that the refurbished Council Chamber will be equipped with digital video recording equipment. Working with this equipment, it could be possible to record and archive digital video for playback via computer networks and the Internet. Facilities staff will begin exploring this option later this year. While this option will have the same access limitations as the on-line audio system described in option 'b'(i.e., only those with computers can access the recordings), this option is more easily adaptable to also serve Standing Committees and Community Councils and be used for a text-based Hansard product in the future.

Beyond its usefulness in providing a Municipal Hansard-like service, digital audio and video technology has the potential for other corporate uses such as program service delivery (remote monitoring of services) and staff training (via an intranet). It may be possible to distribute the capital costs of the technology across other benefiting areas of the Corporation.

A Hansard-like Service for City Council:

A Hansard-like service for City Council meetings can provide the public with a factual account of meetings to provide a context for understanding the decisions of City Council. If a Hansard-like service is implemented for the City, ideally it should also serve Standing Committees and Community Councils, in addition to City Council, since the majority of the transactional business of City originates and its substantively debated at the committee level. Many of the issues that are of specific public interest are location specific (e.g., planning applications) and are generally debated at the committee level and committee recommendations are ratified at City Council with little or no debate. Focusing a Hansard-like service only on City Council meetings would not capture these debates.

While a text-based Municipal Hansard would provide the greatest range of access to Council proceedings, as compared to audio or video files, producing a text-based document is a costly and time-consuming function since it involves labour-intensive work processes to translate audio files to text files. It is recommended that City Council not pursue a text-based Hansard service at this time. Pursuing alternative technologies including digital audio and/or video recordings is a more beneficial option. Digital technology is more cost-effective, results in a more immediate product, is relatively accessible, is more readily adaptable to service other committee meetings and corporate programs. Establishing access to digital audio and/or video files could represent an interim step to producing a text-based Municipal Hansard in the future as technology improvements permit electronic translation to text-files. It may even be possible to link technologies such as "streaming text" from a closed-captioning service with audio and/or video files to provide a more complete information product. It is recommended that the City Clerk and Information Technology and Facilities Management staff investigate the technical requirements for digitally recording City Council meetings and providing public access to such recordings, and report back to the Corporate Services Committee.

Hansard-like service overlaps into the larger issue of public accessibility to the Council legislative process. Accessibility issues are being examined through the City Clerk's ongoing legislative process review, and a progress report from the City Clerk on this work is also on the Special Committee agenda. Further analysis is underway and conclusions will be forthcoming through the legislative process review.

Conclusions:

A Hansard-like service is designed to accurately record the substantially verbatim proceedings of a meeting. It does not replace the Minutes of a meeting which are designed to record the decisions. A Hansard-like service would provide a factual reference to Council debates so the public, Members and staff can understand the context of decisions. However, the production of a traditional text-based Hansard is a costly option and is not recommended at this time. Advancements in the area of digital technology to record, distribute and archive Council meetings provide a more attractive alternative which in the future could also be used to produce a text-based Hansard. The opportunity to use technology to make the municipal legislative process more accessible can position the City as a leader in transparent governance.

Staff will continue to explore digital technology options and report back to the Corporate Services Committee on implementation options and more specific budget estimates.

The City Solicitor and Corporate Facilities staff have been consulted in preparation of this report.

Contact Name:

Peter Fay, Senior Policy and Planning Analyst, City Clerk's Office

tel.: (416) 392-8668 e-mail: pfay@toronto.ca

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The Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team reports, for the information of Council, also having had before it the following e-mail communications:

(i)(February 10, 1999) from Ms. Sally Gibson urging the Chair and Members of the Special Committee to recommend to Council that the City establish a text-based Hansard service and that sufficient resources be provided to the Clerk for her to create and maintain such a system; and

(ii)(February 12, 1999) from Ms. Liz Rykert in support of a text based online searchable Hansard service and suggesting that City's Economic Development Office be requested to explore options for public/private partnerships to develop the software to deliver the product through the Internet.