Council Committee of the Whole Agenda: December 6, 2010

The agenda package for Monday's Committee of the Whole meeting of Peace River Town Council is available for downloading or viewing.

At 5:00, Council will hear an economic development update.

Other items of interest:
Selection of the 2010 Community Enhancement Award recipients (one individual and one business). Nominees include:
Individual: Dave VanTamelen and the Alberta Summer Games Committee; Frank Light (fire safety training)
Business: River City Cinema; Peace River Town & Country Realty; Twilight Videos & Games; Java Domainn

Draft Parks & Trails Plan. According to the agenda package, this plan "provides an overview of the existing parks, playgrounds and trails within the municipality. It encompasses recommendations on the enhancement of existing trails and future development of new trails . . . [and] includes the existing 5 year Parks Upgrade plan" (the full draft document is included in the agenda package). The report references a number of important policy documents from the past three years, including Avi Friedman's downtown revitalization report, the new Municipal Development Plan, the Municipal Sustainability Plan, among others.

The Process Steps and Timelines are laid out in the Request for Decision, projecting (among other critical dates) a February 2 Public Input Open House and March 14 Council approval of the plan.


The AUMA Elected Officials Education Program (EOEP) motion that I blogged about previously is on this agenda.

Council Meetings in December and 2011: Councillor Lafontaine's request that Council consider meeting on December 20 and also on every Monday of every month throughout 2011 will be discussed. This would be a grueling schedule for staff and Council. It would mean that staff would be working prior to every long weekend to prepare the Council agenda package and that Council and some staff would lose every long weekend of the year to meeting preparation and attendance.

More troubling to me is that this schedule would also likely mean that there would be less than full Council in attendance for many of the meetings. This could allow for agenda manipulation on contentious items in order to limit debate or ensure passage of motions. I think it's important that as much as possible, every agenda item gets full attention by all or most of Council. When there are gaps built into the meeting schedule (monthly, for long weekends, or to allow for a longer summer or Christmas break), it can allow Council members to plan around those to ensure he can attend most meetings as well as have a break from Council work.

Council work can put a lot of strain on family and personal life and this proposal, while perhaps practical in terms of predictability, seems unnecessarily punitive for the CAO, Directors, other staff, and the families of mayor and councillors as well as Council members themselves.

RCMP September and October 2010 Mayor's Reports: The reports provide detailed crime statistics, broken down by category (e.g., assaults, break and enter, drugs, etc.) and by the area (Peace River municipal boundaries; the rural area around Peace River, and Grimshaw municipal boundaries). There are also traffic statistics and a "year in review" for crime and traffic statistics for the whole region. The 9 year overview provides a higher-level look at crime and traffic statistics for the region.

Great news for Peace River library project: Feds extend timeline for infrastructure stimulus project completion

This announcement about a 7-month extension for infrastructure stimulus projects is very welcome news and will give everyone involved in the Peace River library renovation and expansion project some breathing room. Peace River wasn't the only municipality facing challenges to complete by the deadline, but our lone voice did not hold much weight. When the former Council spoke with MP Chris Warketin about this, we were told the deadline was the deadline, no exceptions.

But when many of the major cities began to lobby for this change and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) stepped in to put pressure on the government to extend the deadline, I was encouraged and am now delighted. The local project appears to be on track for substantial completion by March 31 despite the relatively late start and the setback caused by the foundation failure, but this announcement does take off some of the pressure. Many thanks to FCM for advocating on behalf of all Canadian municipalities with stimulus funding.

AUMA's Top Priorities for 2011

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association has released its top priorities for 2011:

• Government transfers to municipalities
• Municipal infrastructure funding 
• Municipal water and wastewater systems

At the AUMA convention, priorities are voted on in population-based segments of cities, towns, villages or summer villages. AUMA notes that this is the first time in many years that all segments agreed on the top three priorities. That's a good sign and allows AUMA to take action knowing there is this support from all sizes of Alberta urban municipalities.

Entrench the Education of Elected Officials: AUMA Request to Councils

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) is asking councils across the province to consider a motion to entrench a commitment to enable mayors and councillors to make use of the Elected Officials Education Program (EOEP).

Here is part of the preamble:
The Elected Officials Education Program (EOEP) began offering education on roles and responsibilities of elected officials in Alberta in 2008. The EOEP was developed to provide municipally elected officials with an opportunity to broaden their knowledge and skills and helps raise the quality of municipal government ... To raise awareness of the program and provide some consistency across the province, the EOEP asks for your support in presenting the following motion to council in support of elected official education: "that the Council approve Administration bringing forward a report on the educational opportunities available through the EOEP, and that consideration be given during budget discussions to allocating monies to training and education of municipal elected officials throughout the 3-year term of the Council."

Although the motion does not require Council members to take the courses (and until they are available via videoconference, it is difficult for Northerners to take them), passing this motion could at least serve to recognize the value of having council members make a commitment to learning about their very great responsibilities and being as effective as possible in this role.

Rural/Urban Divide?

I thought I'd pass along the link to an insightful blog about the perceived rural-urban political divide as it relates to political parties here in Alberta.

Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) convention: Nov. 23-25, 2010

Peace River's new Council will be attending the annual AUMA convention this week. Although the main convention started yesterday, there were pre-convention sessions on Monday that included:

• Now That You've Been Elected
• Is Your Municipality Viable: How to Find Out
• What New Elected Officials Need to Know
• Water Conservation Planning
• Effective Decision Making (a module of the Elected Officials Education Program). I was only able to attend one of the EOEP courses during my term on Council--the one on municipal financial statements and management--and it was excellent.

Tuesday there were policy debates on the various resolutions submitted by municipalities. When passed, these resolutions provide direction to the AUMA board and administration. A quick scan of the titles will give you a glimpse into what issues are on the minds of municipalities around the province.

For instance, Grande Prairie presented a resolution to request the government to establish a renewable energy expert panel. The resolution passed according to a tweet from Mayor Bill Given. Peace River's former Council submitted a resolution on the establishment of a Renewable Power Incentive Program In Alberta. Once I hear how the vote went, I'll update here.

The AUMA convention also has a huge trade show featuring products and services relevant to municipalities and many opportunities for social activities and networking that are valuable over a councillor's term.

Peace River Town Council Regular Council Meeting: November 8, 2010

Here are a few highlights from Monday's agenda:

• At 5:00, Shell Canada is updating Council on the Carmon Creek regulatory process, Three Creeks emissions, and proposed winter activity for the Peace River Venture Area
• Council is being asked to do first reading on two changes to the Land Use Bylaw (the former Acklands-Grainger building to allow for a bottle depot and the site of the former bowling alley for a "indoor participant recreation service facility). The proposed date for a public hearing is December 13
• A request to make the proxy appointment to the newly-formed Peace Regional Waste Management Company (the former East Peace Landfill Authority. Also included in the package are the articles of association and memorandum of understanding
• A request to appoint public members to the Peace River Municipal Library Board (me) and to the Community Services Board (Neil Martin). One November 1, the motion to appoint me to the Library Board was defeated. I was subsequently asked to provide a resume to support my application, which is in this week's package. This item also shows a list of various boards that have vacancies, for anyone interested in volunteer opportunities.
• Council is being asked to support the Mackenzie Municipal Services Agency (MMSA) in its application for grant funding under the Alberta Municipal Affairs Regional Collaboration Program to enable the agency and region to be proactive in the development of a Land Use Framework.
•  Update on the Medical Centre of Excellence business plan undertakings and a request that Council use the joint advisory committee mechanism within the Capital Cost Sharing Agreement with Northern Sunrise County to discuss funding the development of the business plan. This would be allocated from the joint future facilities and infrastructure reserve. If approved, a committee would be formed to oversee the initiative.
  Dr. Dave Willox's PowerPoint slides making the case for the Centre are included in the agenda package. Health Minister Zwozdesky recently visited Peace River to discuss the Centre so let's hope Alberta Health Services gets behind the project and does it quickly. As the recent letter from Peace River doctors indicates, the limited clinic space is exacerbating an already-critical situation with doctor retention and recruitment.
• Minutes from the Peace River Regional Airport Marketing Plan Committee are included along with the marketing plan
• Under the Information section of the agenda are letters from Northern Sunrise County and the County of Northern Lights indicating the appointments made from the Councils on various regional committees (Off-Highway Vehicle Committee, Regional Airport Committee, Library Building Committee, Inter-Municipal Development Plan Committee, Regional Assessment Board)

There is much more on the agenda so scan through to see if there are items of interest to you. If there are, consider attending the portion of the meeting where these are discussed. It can help to understand a decision if you've been able to observe the discussion.