As other local municipal councils get ready to resume in-person meetings as early next week, council chambers at Cambridge city hall will remain quiet until at least May, according to staff.
Before the Omicron surge extended every Ontario municipality's two-year reliance on virtual council meetings for another two months, Cambridge was already laying the groundwork for a delayed return to the horseshoe at city hall.
A report to council in December outlined a plan to replace the dated audio, video and computer equipment in council chambers to accommodate virtual meetings.
The city wants to go to a hybrid model once public health restrictions allow and the updated tech will allow anyone with a computer to participate in a live meeting in council chambers from their own home.
But because of supply chain issue related to microchips, which are in scarce supply worldwide, the planned $264,000 upgrade couldn't happen by the end of last year as scheduled.
"The city, through the procurement process, communicated the impact of delays for this project and requested an accelerated timeline; however, this global shortage is difficult to predict for vendors and will postpone the return to Council Chambers for the first part of 2022," wrote city clerk Danielle Manton.
She expects staff and council training on the new system could start in mid-April with the first hybrid meeting scheduled for May or June, depending on set up.
Changes to council chambers will also include a seating adjustment to ensure capacity limits and acrylic dividers are now in place for the council and staff seating.
Manton said all citizen committees also continue to meet online monthly and have successfully live streamed to the public to allow virtual participation.
Money for the council chamber project is coming from the city's rate stabilization reserve fund along with Safe Restart Agreement funding from the province.
