Councillor Bradford’s ‘accountability’ streaming push falters
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Brad Bradford’s video streaming motion came with a twist worthy of a Netflix series.
“On April 23, one of my team members was removed” from a press conference “by the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, who said, quote, ‘Some councillors’ offices are allowed, but you aren’t,’” Councillor Bradford said Tuesday afternoon at Toronto city council’s executive committee.
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“On May 13, we went back and another member from my office was removed, followed by an email to my chief of staff explaining that they’re not permitted.”
Bradford had urged Mayor Olivia Chow, in a motion before city council, to stream her press conferences and other appearances live online in the name of “accountability.” City Hall’s top bureaucrats came back with an estimate of $600,000 a year, plus the cost of a new vehicle, to stream all things Chow.
Bradford, who is not on the executive committee but appeared in person at the meeting, called that estimate “astronomical.”
Councillor Josh Matlow agreed that number seemed off. Tuesday’s meeting was, as is typical, streamed live, and councillors were told it takes just one or two staff for each of those broadcasts. The $600,000 estimate included salaries for four staff on the city’s communications and technical teams, committee members heard.
Chow, who spoke at the committee in between coughs and sniffles – “My summer cold came back for some reason,” she quipped – reassembled Bradford’s motion. What the committee passed was instead a basic call to “identify opportunities” to stream her events with the city’s current resources.
Chow said when Premier Doug Ford held a recent press conference, a squad of “15 to 20” staff were there to accommodate video. She sniffed at the idea, floated earlier in the afternoon, that her appearances be shot “on an iPhone, for God’s sake.”
“We are the biggest city of Canada. We are the fastest growing in North America. Our budget is large, and if any other smaller provincial government, and when they do the recording … and they have a certain quality of it, and you are saying that we should be lower quality than that? I don’t think so. We should not be inferior.”
Bradford, who ran for mayor in the byelection that brought Chow to power in 2023, did not find many allies at the committee.
Gord Perks’ response to Bradford’s idea verged on ridicule, as he wondered aloud if all this extra streaming was meant to serve as a form of entertainment. He asked if City Hall should broadcast footage of Chow going kayaking or Councillor Shelley Carroll eating lunch.
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“I don’t think people want us to plant nanny cams on the mayor or any other member of council,” Perks said.
Perks at one point accused Bradford of “rage farming.” Bradford shot back that such a personal remark was uncalled for and untrue.
Chow seemed disdainful of Bradford’s point, even as she agreed.
“Fine, fine, that’s OK … you two can sort it out,” Chow said, speaking over Bradford.
One of the speakers before the committee was Iain MacKinnon, of the Canadian Media Lawyers Association. MacKinnon said streaming the mayor’s appearances would not only make City Hall more transparent, it would also bring more accountability to Toronto’s news media, as citizens could see Chow’s comments in their full context and draw their own conclusions.
Despite Chow’s concerns with shooting on a smartphone, MacKinnon suggested the city might not need slickly produced video, as platforms such as Zoom have become ubiquitous since COVID, even on professional news broadcasts.
City bureaucrats appeared somewhat unprepared for the discussion at Tuesday’s meeting, at times unable to answer basic questions such as what exactly the streaming policy had been during John Tory’s tenure as mayor.
“I hate to ask you this, but given the fact that this item was going to be on the executive committee agenda, why wasn’t some of that work done and evaluated to inform us today?” Matlow asked the city manager.
“Aside from the politics and all that kind of stuff, but genuinely, if we’re considering the merit of live streaming, why wouldn’t we have some information to consider about that?”
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