I wish to thank you – my friends, readers, supporters, and patrons – for your support.
To ensure I do not undermine the current Ontario Provincial Police investigation into matters I will not be returning to covering City Hall at the present time.
ThePublicRecord.ca will resume coverage of local affairs on April 15, during the OPP investigation, coverage will be focused on our two local school boards.
Unfortunately, as a small startup news outlet, I’m limited in the options and resources available to respond to this situation.
This is one of the challenges of working to find a new model for sustainable local public interest journalism – I’m the only staff member for ThePublicRecord.ca.
Once the legal process is complete, coverage of City Hall will resume.
Per my previous statement, I am unable to comment further on current matters.
Covering the School Boards
It may be a cliche, but there there is nothing more important that the education of our children by our public school systems.
Much like civic government, watchdog coverage of our education system decreased in the past decade as corporate media consolidation removed beat reporters.
he Catholic School Board is very rarely covered, and I will be providing the first ever live video look into their meetings. With a budget over $300-million per year and nearly 30,000 students, the Catholic School Board needs watchdog journalism.
The Hamilton-Wentworth District School budget is nearing $500 million per year and with approximately 50,000 students, move coverage of the HWDSB will enable us to be better informed about the Board, its role in our community, and the challenges we must face as a community related to school closures and changing demographics.
Coverage will resume on April 15 with live video and coverage of the public board’s Finance and Facilities Committee.
It is a goal of ThePublicRecord.ca to become sustainable to hire Hamiltonians as journalists covering our civic affairs and to expand coverage to our education system. As the site reaches sustainability, we will continue coverage of education with new staff when I’m finally able to return to covering City Hall.
Thank you again for your support, I look forward to resuming coverage and the privilege of continuing to cover our City as Hamilton’s independent reader-funded journalist.