I realize I haven’t given a proper update of what we’ve been up to lately as a council. After last nights committee of the whole meeting I figured now was as good of time as any.
What has council been up to?
The main focus over the first few months of this term was to get up to speed and learn as much as we can and then learn some more. What does this entail? Well, we’ve attended various orientation programs that talk about the process for municipal governance and an overview of our roles and responsibilities. Navigating the line between operations (handled by our CAO) and governance, finding where that line is and how to be most effective in our roles as elected officials.
There have been conferences like Alberta Municipalities (in Edmonton), along with courses put on by the Elected Officials Education Program (in Lethbridge and Online). There’s been topic specific training like Economic Development for Elected officials, that are put on by some of the associations our town is a member of. Some of the committees that we get appointed to, such as the Chinook Intermunicipal Subdivision Development Appeal Board, have additional required training. In addition there are some mandatory required courses for elected officials.
Beyond the training we’ve been working with our assigned committees both internal and external, to do some of the legwork to bring recommendations forward to the full council for approval. Every council member has their own list of committees that they are appointed to, and most committee appointments are made and updated during the organizational meeting which happens once a year. Our organizational meeting happened to be the first meeting once we were elected.
As a result of that meeting I had been appointed to the following internal committees: Risk Management Committee, Policy/Bylaw Review Committee, Community Sustainability and Enhancement Committee and the Finance Committee, which includes all members of council. Externally I’m on the Oldman Watershed Council, an Intermunicipal Committee, Southgrow Regional Initiative (an Economic Development group, where I am now on the Executive board), and the Chinook Intermunicipal Subdivision Development Appeal Board.
As an elected official for our town we do represent our neighbours and friends for things that matter locally but we also provide a regional voice where we can work with neighboring municipalities. The town as a whole is also a member of regional associations that help advocate for what is in the best interest of the majority of members – things such as trying to have the federal government cover the cost of retroactive pay for RCMP when we have only recently began to pay for their services but the retroactive pay goes beyond when we started paying for their services. I don’t want to get too in depth on that but if anyone has questions feel free to ask me!
That might have been a bit of a long winded background on the foundations for how our council operates. In addition to the committee’s mentioned above, every member of our council is part of the Committee of the Whole, this is where a lot of the meaty discussions take place – essentially the work leading up to the motions we would see in a normal council meeting.
For those curious our council meetings are the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, at 7pm in council chambers at the town office. The other Tuesdays (2nd 4th and sometimes 5th) would be the days when the Committee of the Whole sits.
Last nights Committee of the Whole was an interesting one. There was only two real items on the agenda. We were meeting with Staff Sergeant Michael Newman of the Coaldale RCMP detachment, along with Rachel Thomas (our local MP, who is in the attached photo with us).
This was a very important and good to have meeting in my mind. First it’s building the relationship between the town and the RCMP and the town and our federally elected representative. It was also a chance to learn about how they can support our community and share our community needs with them.
With the Staff Sergeant being new, I had the impression that he wants to work with the community to address our needs. He provided information on how the Coaldale detachment operates along with a bit of information about the Picture Butte detachment as well. A highlight for me that stood out was the forensic id members (crime scene investigation) have a state of the art lab that he commented was like one of if not the best in Canada.
When we had a chance to talk to Rachel Thomas, she was curious to what matters to our town. The goal was for her to keep an eye on the federal budget when it comes out to see if there was any money that would be able to help us out as a municipality. It was also a great chance to talk about not only what matters looking forward but what matters currently, like the current utility rates (I didn’t bring this up, but I’m thankful that it was brought up).
With all the chaos and confusion that’s happening in the country at the moment I left the meeting yesterday feeling a sense of hope. In our community with the people we have on our side I feel that we’re in a place to make positive change. It felt like everyone was rooting for success of not only town but the area. I’m hoping that this meeting was a stepping stone to great things!
I apologize for the length of this as I may have got a bit carried away but I feel the information above is important to share with the community so it doesn’t appear like we’re just being quiet and not doing too much overall. Thanks for taking the time to read through this!