Brazeau County Council Meeting September 1, 2026

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[12:38] This conference will now be recorded.
[14:18] All right. Good morning everyone. Appears to be 9:00
[14:24] September the 1st. Beautiful day September morning. I guess I'll call
[14:27] this meeting to order and I'll just ask administration, are there any additions
[14:31] or deletions to the agenda? >> Good morning, interim revenant council.
[14:35] Uh just one addition to the agenda this morning under 15C.
[14:40] Uh if council would add a dinner meeting with MP Dane Lloyd. Uh as you know we
[14:45] were asked to see if we could secure that meeting with him. It has been
[14:48] secured. So we're hoping that uh council will be able to attend that date. Um so
[14:53] dinner meeting with Dane Lloyd September 9th 2026 5:30 p.m. And that will be item
[14:58] 15 C on the agenda. >> That's good. Council, are there any
[15:03] other additions or deletions? Hearing none, seeing none, think we can
[15:08] adopt that. Council West one, go ahead.
[15:12] » I move the agenda as amended. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All those in
[15:17] favor? Any opposed? Councelor Harris, are you joining us?
[15:22] Negative. Carried. Okay, moving on.
[15:28] All right. So, adoption of the August 18th, 2026 regular council minutes. Were
[15:33] there any adjustments needed for those minutes at all?
[15:39] I thought they looked pretty good. Hearing none. Seeing none, uh that we
[15:43] can put a motion on councilor vote. Go ahead.
[15:45] » I move to um receive the minutes from [clears throat] the August. What date
[15:52] was that? >> 18th meeting. Thank you.
[15:54] » You're welcome. Uh any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Carried
[16:01] unanimously. All right. Business arising. Is there
[16:05] any anything from the follow-up action list that we need to consider this
[16:09] morning? >> Uh one item from the uh follow-up action
[16:12] list. Um as you know, we've been working for a few dates on the uh lease rate
[16:16] portion of the PD19 oil and gas lease rate policy. Uh that will be presented
[16:21] to council in closed session today. And that's all from the follow by action
[16:27] list. >> Okay. Thank you.
[16:33] » Adopt. Go ahead. Councelor Gunderson. >> I move to receive the follow-up action
[16:38] list for information. >> All right. Any discussion?
[16:42] All those in favor? Any opposed? None carried.
[16:50] No reports from the CEO this morning and a little bit early for delegations.
[16:56] So we'll just move right into planning area structure plan pages 59.
[17:05] Please make yourself at home.
[17:16] Thank you. Good morning council. I have in front of you today a application
[17:22] uh for to adopt the Dingwell area structure plan. It provides framework
[17:26] and policies for future development in the southeast 257
[17:30] west of the fifth meridian. And to provide context of the location, the
[17:35] location map can be found on page 94 of the uh agenda here.
[17:41] The main focus of the area structure plant is 138 acres and the quarter
[17:47] section is immediately west of Range Road 71 and immediately north of
[17:51] Township Road 500. There are already three subdivided
[17:56] parcels out uh all zoned agricultural holdings and the municipal development
[18:01] plan requires an area structure plan if more than four titled parcels will be in
[18:06] a quarter section. So with the desire to create one more parcel out of this
[18:10] quarter section that would be five titled parcels requiring this area
[18:14] structure plan that clarity on number of parcels um as per policy 14 in the
[18:20] municipal development plan was provided by council on January 21st 2020 that it
[18:25] was the titled parcels not subdivided parcels. So [clears throat] the
[18:29] application in front of you is a simplified area structure plan. It
[18:33] covers all the requirements in the municipal government act and the
[18:37] appropriate ones out of our policy PD13 area structure plan. The intent is to
[18:43] create or to be completed in one phase and accommodate approximately 10.1 acre
[18:49] uh subdivision. The uh
[18:54] tentative plan or the phase one future land concept is on page 99 of the
[18:59] agenda. So you can see where that uh that particular acreage is looking to be
[19:04] and it would require a reszoning to agricultural holdings.
[19:09] The proposed parcel is has existing improvements already on it which are
[19:13] compatible with and complimentary with the rural Rocky Rapids area.
[19:18] However, we did give consideration to the development constraints primarily
[19:23] oil and gas on the uh quarter section as well as impacts to servicing and storm
[19:29] water management. So that included transportation networks for servicing
[19:33] and emergency services. As per the policy requirements, uh Mr.
[19:38] Dingwall did hold a public open house um for the area structure plan. There were
[19:44] two people who attended it attended and had no concerns. Uh notification went
[19:49] out in both the newspaper as well as mailed out to land owners within 800
[19:53] meters of the quarter section. And those results are included already in the area
[20:00] structure plan um under section 1.3.4 results of public
[20:05] consultation on page 70 of the agenda. So presented to you today is uh first
[20:12] reading for bylaw 125626 proposing the adoption of the Dingwell area structure
[20:17] plan and the analysis is on page 60 of the agenda. If you have any questions
[20:21] I'm happy to answer them. >> All right. Thank you council. Do you
[20:25] have any questions for planning?
[20:29] » If there are none or >> I just have one.
[20:31] » Yeah. Go ahead. >> Thank you chair. So on page 65, I know
[20:34] that they probably printed that, but it says adopted by Brazer County Council
[20:38] bylaw number 1256-26. Is that normal to see adopted already
[20:49] through the chair to councelor Gunderson? Um
[20:53] probably a little premature to put adopted by. Uh the bylaw number is
[20:57] there. It was a templated um area structure plan that we gave him to
[21:02] start working with. >> Oh, you guys printed that on. Okay.
[21:05] » So, that was a mistake on our end. Yeah. >> Also, um for the open house, is it very
[21:09] common to have them before first reading? Is that that for an area
[21:13] structure plan? This would be my first one, I believe. So,
[21:16] » yeah. So, through the chair to councelor Gunderson, uh typically an a public open
[21:20] house would be held by the developer before first reading. Um, if it was a
[21:24] larger scale area structure pun, we would have brought it forward for
[21:27] information in a council meeting. We did provide it through email instead, uh,
[21:31] due to the size and scope of this particular area structure plan. Um, but
[21:35] then it gives the developer a chance. So, if there's a bunch of feedback, they
[21:39] can change the area structure plan and mend it before it goes to first reading
[21:43] to keep it a little bit cleaner once it goes through the the first reading
[21:46] public hearing situation. So if somebody was like, um, oh no, I think this type
[21:52] of development should happen over here instead of over here. If they had to
[21:55] change their concept plans and do different studies, it's much easier for
[21:59] them to do it ahead of time than than be amending it and trying to keep track of
[22:02] what has changed between first reading and second reading.
[22:05] » Thank you for that clarification.
[22:09] » Councelor V. Go ahead. Um if I could just in the area structure plan process
[22:15] I guess this is also my first one. Um my question is
[22:20] they're subdividing off another piece of that quarter. Um is there it says it it
[22:26] quotes it as a phase one. Is there potential for a phase two a phase three
[22:30] and is that included in this area structure plan or would they have to
[22:32] start from square one again? >> So through the chair to councelor folk.
[22:36] Very good question. This is simply for one more parcel out on the quarter
[22:40] section. Um it states in the area structure plan that any further
[22:43] subdivision would require a more extensive area structure plan. Um and
[22:48] would be where things like a water availability study would be triggered uh
[22:52] with six parcels. So this is simply for phase one one phase and then the area
[22:58] structure plan will be complete. Any further subdivision on this parcel would
[23:02] require an amendment or an repeal and replace of a new area structure plan.
[23:15] » Any other questions? Council councelor Bowski.
[23:19] If there's nothing else, I will move first reading to bylaw 1256-26
[23:26] proposing the adoption of the Dingwall area structure plan.
[23:29] Thank you sir. Any other questions? All those in favor?
[23:36] Any opposed? None. Are structure plan is adopted. Thank
[23:41] you.
[23:49] All right. Moving into public works bridge grant application 7A.
[23:59] Go right ahead when you're ready. Yeah. >> Good morning to you.
[24:04] » Is to present council with an update on the status of Bridge Brazio County's uh
[24:08] 2026 bridge rehabilitation and replacement grant applications. So
[24:13] included is the funding decisions received to date from all the
[24:16] applications from November 30th, 2025. And administration will be presenting
[24:22] all bridge and stip recommendations. um further to this in the 2027 interimm
[24:27] budget discussions in the fall. Uh based on the STIP application
[24:32] results, we are asking for a motion today. Administration is recommending
[24:36] council approve bridge file 75463 standard bridge replacement and it's a
[24:42] bridge culvert township road 500 and range road 52 and the amount I'm going
[24:49] to amend that. So what's in the report is the total replacement cost. So now
[24:54] that we've got the STIP um approval that will cover 75%. So the STIP approval was
[25:01] 861,000 at 75%. So today asking for 287,000
[25:07] which is the 25% from major facility capital investment
[25:11] reserve. Just to give a bit more of an overview
[25:15] um have included the three grant applications that went forward uh fall
[25:19] of 2025. So, bridge file 71598, which was Range
[25:24] Road 42 south of Township Road 475, maps on page 120. This one was unfortunately
[25:31] unsuccessful. Um, similar feedback on each letter was
[25:36] this year's intake was highly competitive and available funding was
[25:38] exceeded by the volume.
[25:43] The next one on page 118 is the one we're talking about today, which is
[25:47] bridge file 75463, Range Road 52, south of 500.
[25:52] The map of location is on page 121. So this step step application was
[25:58] successful. Uh this bridge culvert was in age a little bit older than the other
[26:04] step application as well. it is did have a low advisory rating on it as well
[26:09] which may have uh aided towards the stip decision.
[26:14] Um at this time it's the BIM replacement
[26:19] value which we've you know gone in for. However, in the past council has had
[26:24] discussions about upgrading this portion of the road or paving in the future. Um
[26:29] so when we bring back engineering and design options it will include an option
[26:33] for a longer cover for council's consideration as well if and uh that
[26:39] will be included in the budget discussions this fall as well.
[26:44] The last one which wasn't for stip but we applied for bridge file 13214
[26:49] township 494 east of 22. We applied for the drought and flood protection
[26:53] program. Um and unfortunately that one was unsuccessful this year again as
[26:58] well.
[27:02] Administration will be presenting all bridge funding priorities as part of the
[27:06] 2027 in budget.
[27:12] That's it. All right. Thank you. Council, do you
[27:16] have any questions for public works before we carry on? So, you're only
[27:21] asking for one motion this morning? >> Yeah, just the one motion for bridge
[27:25] file 75463 287,000 from Major Facility Capital
[27:30] Investment Reserve. >> Okay. Thank you,
[27:34] Councelor Blowski. Go ahead. >> I'm ready to make a motion with one
[27:37] question. I just want to confirm the number you need. 287.
[27:40] » That's right. >> Okay. With that, I move that council
[27:44] approves BF 75463, Standard Bridge Replacement, Township Road 500 and Range
[27:50] Road 52 for $287,000 from major facility capital investment
[27:56] reserves. >> Thank you. Any discussion, council?
[28:00] » Yeah. >> Council Western, go ahead.
[28:02] » Thank you. through the chair to administration. My question is how much
[28:06] money is sitting in the major capital uh investment reserve and is there other
[28:11] things earmarked for that money that's sitting there?
[28:15] » I'll have to defer that to Colin with finance and corporate services. I did um
[28:20] vet my report and the funding reserve prior to this for his approval of which
[28:25] reserve? If I may, through the chair to councelor
[28:29] Westerland. Uh the fund uh without the motion today, the fund sits at about
[28:33] $1.89 million with no other uh projects currently allocated. And as well, if
[28:39] council wishes, they still have the unrestricted funds uh that they can
[28:43] spend on miscellaneous items. That's at $6 million. So, so there's room there
[28:47] right now. Okay. >> So, then actually knowing that, why
[28:50] would we not take it from unrestricted if there's six million there?
[28:54] » I guess that's a question for council. not administration.
[28:59] I mean it's different accounts but I mean we have a major facility capital
[29:04] investment reserve set up for a reason. >> Why are we taking what I don't know
[29:12] » it's there for a reason. You'd have to that's actually a good question. What
[29:15] what what was supposed to come out of this? I just don't like taking out of
[29:18] just willy-nilly taking out of different reserves. But if we've also got money in
[29:21] unrestricted then that makes sense to take from there. That's just the way my
[29:26] brain and my business mind works. >> Yeah, I would just have to ask Colin if
[29:30] he had any input on that. Um, but I have a question and that is in regards to the
[29:35] bridge file 75463. Is there consideration for a
[29:39] reconfiguration to go east rather than to make that curve to go to the south?
[29:45] You see how that that is? Is there any any challenges there or any changes that
[29:49] would be made if we go ahead and do that?
[29:52] » Yeah. uh to council there is consideration for that. At the time when
[29:56] this was put in it was CNRL had locations in the area that's restricting
[30:01] that. So that was part of this discussion as well. So there was two
[30:04] parts in future upgrades of the road and what council might want to see there. So
[30:08] » although we're asking to start this engineering design I think uh this will
[30:11] be part of a presentation in the fall as to what council would wish to put on
[30:15] this file. >> Okay. Yeah. Six of one half dozen of the
[30:18] other. Both locations are really poor. Um there's blind spots coming both
[30:22] directions. So I just don't know if that's uh but the fill is already made
[30:26] going to the east. So that would be an interesting um adjustment.
[30:33] I just I'm curious about public works safety consideration going into that,
[30:37] but he would know better than I. >> Okay. Thank you. No further questions.
[30:40] Did we have a motion on the floor, sir? >> Yes.
[30:42] » Colin Colin has appeared. >> Oh, Colin, you want to weigh in?
[30:48] » Good morning, council. No, I was just listening there and just to um answer
[30:53] Council Wesson's question there. So, the $6 million includes the um major
[30:57] facility account at the $18 million that Rudy mentioned, it's just a a collection
[31:02] of about six accounts with the total being six million where we would
[31:05] recommend council um fund miscellaneous items or um non-budget items through.
[31:11] » Okay, I continue. >> Carry on. Um so just clarification
[31:16] there's nothing planned for the 2026 year capital that's supposed to be
[31:20] coming out of that reserve. So >> um so through the chair to council
[31:23] wrestle no through the 2026 budget all those items had been um earmarked and
[31:28] allocated throughout that this fund will be put forward to the 2027 interimm
[31:33] budget um and any um deliberations at that time. So this plus any amounts that
[31:39] would be bringing in from new 2027 money would make up the restricted reserves
[31:43] for the the upcoming year.
[31:48] » Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. So we do have a
[31:51] motion on the floor. Any other discussion?
[31:54] Hearing none. Seeing none, call the question. All those in favor? Any
[31:59] opposed? None opposed. Carried unanimously. Thank you.
[32:03] » Thank you.
[32:11] All right. Fire services, no reports. Item nine, agricultural services, no
[32:16] reports. 10, community services, no reports.
[32:21] 11, corporate services, none. Same, no reports. And then moving into item 12 on
[32:26] the agenda package, general matters. Request for 2027 municipal budget
[32:32] allocation for the EPAC. So, who will be speaking into this?
[32:38] And is it just a council discussion that you wish to have? Okay. All right.
[32:42] Council, uh, we did get a bit of a lowdown on this at our last meeting.
[32:45] What are your thoughts? How would you like to proceed with this?
[32:54] or just want to make a motion.
[33:04] » Councilor Western, is your light on? >> Yeah, thank you.
[33:06] » Go ahead. >> Um, so I do sit on this committee. Um,
[33:10] this project is um not come out of the blue. Uh this has actually always been
[33:16] uh part of the plan since that building was uh completely redone in oh man I
[33:23] want to go back probably 2010 11ish.
[33:27] Um so the early yeah 2010sish. Um this is the breezeway that's in
[33:33] between I believe it's Oriental Perks. There's a breezeway and then EPAC. Um
[33:38] there's a sidewalk there but the intention was always to have the
[33:41] expansion go in there. the sidewalk and that bridgeway was temporary. Uh this or
[33:46] group has been fundraising quietly over the years. Um I believe they've got well
[33:52] over 400,000 saved up for the project so far. Um they do everything from applying
[33:58] to grants to picking garbage um which earns them a couple hundred dollars um
[34:04] in the county. Um, so they're uh they show they've got a lot of commitment and
[34:09] passion um and they're willing to put the work in. So what has come up uh in
[34:14] the recent months is they do now have a fundraising committee. Uh Tom McGee and
[34:19] Sheila uh McGee have uh graciously uh offered to be the chairs and co-chairs
[34:25] of that committee. Um and they're just they're ready to take the next steps.
[34:30] the uh blueprints are are done and the conceptual uh drawings are ready. Um
[34:37] absolutely there will probably be some changes um tweaks to what uh what the
[34:43] conceptual uh uh drawings are right now. Um but they are estimating uh the total
[34:49] project to be around 4 and a.5 million uh for this project. Um I believe the
[34:56] letter is asking and the intention is to break it over two years. they weren't
[34:59] asking for a lump sum payment all up at uh for once. Um and then they are busy
[35:06] working on I do know they are trying to get the CFEP grant um building Canada
[35:10] grant. Um there is talk um of a major local sponsor coming forward
[35:19] um and I say major uh with capital letters um it's going to be uh
[35:27] going to help substantially towards this project. Um so yeah I did show council
[35:32] the video so maybe at the break, I will uh get it brought up so that it can be
[35:36] put into the minutes and um those who are online or watching this later can
[35:40] see the expansion video um so that it's included in the in in the meeting. Um so
[35:45] I'll send that over for the break. Um and I think councelor Blowski wasn't
[35:49] here that day so he didn't get get a chance to see the video. So yeah, so
[35:54] I'll just I'll get that ready to go for uh in in the meeting, but happy to
[35:58] answer questions the best of my ability. Um, I just got put back onto this
[36:03] committee recently, so I I but I had sat there prior for over a decade, so I do
[36:07] have some some history with this group. Um, they are uh there's new council. So,
[36:14] just for council's clarification, the building is the only building in the
[36:18] community that's actually joined owned by both the town and the county. Um, and
[36:21] that came to fruition when we did the uh the renovations um back in the 2010ish
[36:28] frame frame. Um, so when this project does move
[36:32] forward and we're ready to get a shovel in the ground, um, either the town or
[36:36] the county will have to be the project lead on it. Uh, the last time it was the
[36:41] town, so I mean that's just something for it's just more being in the weeds
[36:45] and figuring that part out. Um, the expansion is to have uh the green
[36:51] rooms uh and space for the casts. So right now I'm going to paint you a
[36:57] picture. When we do any performances there um in the summer they bring
[37:02] somebody from the volunteer group brings volunteers to bring their holiday
[37:05] trailer, parks it in the back alley so that um they have the whoever is putting
[37:10] a show on has somewhere to go and and a bathroom to use. If they can't have
[37:14] access to that, then what happens is uh particularly with the dance groups that
[37:18] use it, they actually have to leave exit the back door um with an adult because
[37:23] you can't leave children alone unattended. Um they have to walk around
[37:26] the side of the building, come in through the front doors, use the
[37:29] washrooms, and then kind of go all the way back around the building. Or in
[37:32] emergency cases, they literally have to jump the stage and run through the
[37:36] audience to go use the washrooms because there's no separate um washing. There's
[37:40] no there's no change area. Um And in the winter months when they have shows, they
[37:45] actually you'll often see like an adco uh type skid shack in the back and they
[37:49] literally bring it in on skids and then give them at least a warm place. But
[37:53] again, they have to go outside, walk through the snow, the rain, sleep, and
[37:57] then use the uh if anybody has been in this facility, it's absolutely gorgeous.
[38:03] Um, and it's just it's it's just time that we treat this
[38:08] facility the way it should be should be treated and and follow through with the
[38:12] with the second phase that um again shouldn't be catch anybody by surprise.
[38:16] It's was always um part of the plan um since the uh the whole EPAC uh vision
[38:22] came alive over 20 years ago. Um I don't know if there's any other
[38:28] questions.
[38:33] Councelor V, go ahead. Now, >> if we just try and understand the
[38:36] financial piece of this just a little bit. So, the the total ask is the total
[38:40] project is $4.5 million. Uh we're looking at 1.5 from the county, 1.5 from
[38:46] the town for a total of 3 million, leaving us with 1.5 million to come from
[38:52] grant funding, donor sponsorship, uh naming rights, etc., etc. They have
[38:58] $400,000 in their savings account. So out of that we're looking at 1.1
[39:02] million. Is that correct? So 1.1 is coming from those major sponsors and the
[39:08] naming rights and the grant funding. What is the potential in the grant
[39:12] funding side of things? >> I just think 1.5 is a a lot coming from
[39:17] the county over two years. Um that's a big ask
[39:20] » and so I'd kind of like to know what that looks like from the grant side.
[39:23] » Yeah. So it it is a big ask. Um the issue with a lot of the grants as we are
[39:28] all very well aware of they have to have the matching funds in order to apply. So
[39:33] um sitting down if we do this um we're going to get creative and I need to
[39:41] choose my words carefully because this is recorded but we're going to get
[39:43] create they're going to try their best to get creative. Um so right now the
[39:47] building Canada fund there is an arts and cultures uh piece that's off that.
[39:52] So that's a federal uh federal grant. um they can apply for up to a million
[39:56] dollars. Uh but again, they have to have the matching funds in place to apply for
[40:01] that. Uh CFP again is also a million dollars, but again they have to have the
[40:05] matching funds um either committed or in their bank account to apply for that. Um
[40:11] there is a major uh sponsor, a naming sponsor um to the tune of close to a
[40:17] million um that may come forward too as well. So what I'm assuming is and I can
[40:23] get confirmation from the committee is if we are successful and get a loting of
[40:26] the lot of these grants we can actually reduce the municipal contribution
[40:30] substantially. Um but the problem is they need the seed money in order to
[40:33] apply for grants but Lee may have some more. Yeah, I just want to speak speak
[40:38] on the um gone blank on the grant the um
[40:44] provincial the CFIP um what we've usually done with CFEP like with the
[40:49] community halls and things they've uh a motion has satisfied that and usually
[40:54] the motion is conditional on getting the grant. So for CFP they don't have to
[41:00] have it in their account just a motion will suffice whereas I know the federal
[41:04] one they have to have it in their account. The other thing I just wanted
[41:07] to mention too was um you know a good time to delay. We do have um the master
[41:14] plan coming next council meeting on the 15th. I'm not sure if that might put
[41:19] some light on on this as far as what the public is, you know, seeking wanting. Um
[41:25] otherwise, you know, might be wise just to defer to 20 2027 budget. Yeah.
[41:30] » Yeah. May I >> Okay. Okay. I just want to catch Council
[41:33] Blowski just before we get a little >> I was just going to say it's I I did
[41:37] theater when I was a young kid. No way. I know I did. I was actually in a major
[41:41] production and I we uh myself and councelor Gunderson actually went to the
[41:46] EPAC center and they and and councelor Vul as well. Um we looked at the
[41:54] facility and the fact that they are even running productions right now is
[41:59] absolutely amazing. So, I the fact that we also part own this building, I would
[42:05] see no problem with us funding something like this. We don't really have a major
[42:09] arts facility in this community. It's something I think is very important for
[42:13] us. So, >> all right. Thank you, Council Western.
[42:17] Go ahead. >> Yeah. Thank you. And the letter um I
[42:20] don't I I I know they don't expect an answer today uh from council. Um I
[42:25] explained our budgeting process. They wanted to make sure they got the letter
[42:28] in and in front of council. Well, of uh well before we head into to budgets for
[42:33] 2027. The only uh hiccup may can and may be and I can do some work looking into
[42:39] it um because I've got the connections in with one of the federal minister's
[42:42] office is if they do want to use that um building Canada fund. I I'll find out
[42:48] when the next um opening for applications in but that grant does need
[42:54] to have um need to have the funding committed in order to apply for it. So,
[43:00] um, yeah, I guess it's it's one of these
[43:03] things where we're we're we're struggling because you're putting it
[43:06] what it's what what comes first, the chicken or the egg. Um, but I I know
[43:11] once we get once we get the funding and part of this too is if we do get that
[43:16] major sponsor announcement um and funding forward, we can use that money
[43:20] to apply for Building Canada fund too as well because that'll be guaranteed money
[43:24] coming in. But anyways, there's a lot going on. uh they are doing their best
[43:28] um but they didn't I don't think they were expecting an answer today. My
[43:31] suggestion would be that we um defer this to the budget 2027 deliberations.
[43:36] They just wanted to make sure that we were well aware of what was coming and
[43:39] what was being asked of.
[43:44] » All right. Any other comments or we still have Mr. Chambers. Any questions
[43:48] for staff? >> Councelor Gunnerson, go ahead.
[43:51] » I'll make a motion. I move to add to the 2027 budget the request for the EPAC
[43:59] expansion funding.
[44:03] » Okay, clear as crystal. Any discussion?
[44:09] » That was a You're ready to vote? [laughter] All those in favor? All those
[44:14] in favor? Any opposed? None. It's carried. Thank you.
[44:21] All right. General matters. Item 12B. How we doing for time? Uh, discussion
[44:25] for homeless challenges and
[44:30] councelor Gunnerson, go ahead. Take the floor. Thank you, chair. So after our
[44:36] town and county joint council meeting, we did have a discussion about uh
[44:40] homeless uh funding and what's and the town did come in with an ask out of that
[44:46] meeting and that was to provide a a 40ard dumpster on cleanup days. We do
[44:53] have an extra one available. It's it's swung into operations only when one of
[44:58] the other ones needs to be welded or painted. So it's it's available. It's
[45:01] sitting there. It can be moved around by um some of the local rental companies
[45:07] like ACR if need be if our fire trucks weren't available. For the most part,
[45:12] these bins would only be used for a day, maybe two filled up and hauled to the
[45:18] dump. But um what I'm looking to do is just add this as a budget item, add it
[45:24] to the 2027 budget as well, just so uh administration can come back with with
[45:30] what the costs are going to be, what the time commitments going to be, and uh so
[45:34] then we can make a decision on if it's something we want to go that way.
[45:38] [snorts] But um I'm curious if anyone's got would like to have discussion on
[45:42] that. But I do know that was an ask coming out of the town. We had um spent
[45:46] almost a year with the mayor's uh homeless task force where the members of
[45:53] council attended and there was nothing that vaporiz nothing came out of that.
[45:58] It was it was a complete waste of time. So um they are making this ask. It seems
[46:04] like something we could do. I know that personally from cleaning up uh from last
[46:09] year the dumpsters work great. uh you can you can pile stuff in there really
[46:14] easily and and move it. It's way better than a pickup truck or a rental trailer.
[46:19] It's it's it's bas it's the best way to to move that material. Um and it's a way
[46:24] that the county can actually pitch in and help a little bit because we really
[46:27] haven't been doing much on our side and uh if if this is something that would
[46:32] make a difference, I'd be very much in favor of it. But encourage uh before I
[46:35] make a motion just anyone would like to speak to it. All right, councelor
[46:40] Blowski, go ahead. >> I It's such a touchy subject, isn't it?
[46:47] But, um, with that, I did attend, uh, a few
[46:51] of those meetings and I do agree with you, councelor Gunderson. Nothing I
[46:55] think really did come of actually trying to mitigate that. My only concern with
[47:00] the bin, because I think it's a good idea. It gives people something to put
[47:04] garbage in and maybe help clean up. My concern was is the dump going to charge
[47:09] us to give them back their garbage >> and that would be my concern. I don't
[47:14] mind providing the bin and that's then that would be the only thing I would ask
[47:19] is that we find out what the aspen leaf's
[47:24] um ask is for us from that. I don't mind giving them the bin,
[47:29] but I would be concerned if they're going to charge us
[47:33] to put garbage back that was already there. That's my only thing. So,
[47:40] councelor vote, go ahead. >> I guess my question is, is the dumpster
[47:43] a temporary situation? Are we going to put it there while we do a cleanup and
[47:47] then dump it back to the dump site and then bring it back here? Or are we
[47:54] leaving it there permanently? Is that is the ask for a permanent dumpster there
[47:58] for them to utilize or just a temporary one? That would be my first question. if
[48:03] I can. It would just be for a day or two. You wouldn't want to have it
[48:06] sitting there full time. So, it just be on the cleanup. The the dream would be
[48:11] that the whoever is doing the cleanup would would phone the county and say,
[48:15] "Is your extra bin available for this this period, Friday to Friday to Monday.
[48:21] And if it is, then we would let it go. If if it's not, well, then we would just
[48:25] say no, it's not available because one of the other bins are getting used. So,
[48:28] sorry." So it'd be so maybe uh a better way to go rather than add this to the
[48:33] 2027 budget would be to refer this to administration to come back with some
[48:37] sort of options for council and then they can actually look into like said
[48:41] councils mentioned the pricing. Are we going to get and I assume we would get
[48:45] charged for the material we're hauling back to the dump. I think that would be
[48:49] so we should know what the costs are. So yeah, a referral to administration is
[48:55] probably where I'm thinking. All right, Carol, do you have another question?
[48:58] » Yeah, it was just in regards to uh councelor Blowsky's uh question on the
[49:02] tipping fees. Um I do believe that that should be waved. Um we're doing a extra
[49:08] service and if we supply the dump, I mean the dumpster and and the town is
[49:14] obviously going to supply the um trucking service to dump the dump back
[49:18] into the waste landfill that uh the tipping fee should be waved. But yeah, I
[49:22] think it should be a discussion that we can go
[49:26] um we can discuss going into budget at this point.
[49:31] » Okay. All right. Thank you for those comments. Yeah. My
[49:36] take on that particular situation would be it's a short-term solution. If we
[49:41] cannot stop refues from coming in from the dump,
[49:45] then we're just having a circular terror effect is happening there and we're
[49:50] creating space for them to fill space, creating a void, and they'll fill the
[49:53] void. Um, as far as our committee was concerned, I mean, I know there are
[49:59] people in the city of Edmonton who are experts in dealing with homelessness. We
[50:03] are not. We're very pragmatic. We're very practical people. We like to find
[50:08] solutions. We're problem solvers, but we've got a long ways to go before we
[50:13] become experts in dealing with homeless people and homeless situations.
[50:18] That's all I have to say. So, I'm going to go to councelor Glosski, councelor
[50:21] Vog, and then I'll come back to Cara. I I will say this in terms of city of
[50:26] Edmonton. I have done work with the city of Edmonton and now it's become yearly.
[50:31] Every year we go and stand by uh rescue while they do um cleanup under bridges
[50:40] and it's the same bridges every year and it's almost like clockwork. So it's it
[50:45] isn't something that you can easily fix as uh
[50:51] the reef said it's it's a constant thing and we're too pat pragmatic I think with
[50:57] this. So, I it's not an easy fix, but I think it's something that would help
[51:04] as long as the dump is willing to work with us as well. I think that's the
[51:07] biggest thing.
[51:11] » Um I think that just in in closing from my perspective, um I do believe that it
[51:16] would be once again um diligent of us to write a letter to our uh provincial
[51:22] government in regards to assisting with this situation. It is a provincial
[51:27] jurisdiction. I know it's in our backyard and we need to do our piece of
[51:31] it, but the big picture it is the responsibility of the provincial
[51:35] government and we did meet with MLA Buchenko in regards to that. So I think
[51:40] if we wrote another letter and just emphasize that we need some help there.
[51:43] My other thought, and this is just out on a left wing because I'm not an expert
[51:48] at it either, but um there's been lots of talk about um the sightliness of it
[51:53] when people come into our community. And I'm just wondering what the possibility
[51:58] of consideration to actually removing the trees that are
[52:05] in that area would lessen the um possibility of uh fire. um in that area.
[52:14] Of course, then of course that's going to reveal the dump itself, the waist
[52:19] hills themselves, but it is uh something that we could look at is maybe looking
[52:25] at removing the trees and the foliage around that area and just putting a
[52:28] fence up. Just a thought. >> Thank you. Just want to point out the I
[52:35] believe the current uh landfill is actually closed um and everything's
[52:39] being trucked to Leuke right now. So if we were to do
[52:42] um anything. Um there is going to be an ex uh
[52:48] uh I don't want to say extenduating well I guess extenduating charges that are
[52:51] going to happen because I don't know if we know the time frame when the landfill
[52:54] is going to reopen um but it's being trucked right now to Leuke um for the
[52:59] unforeseeable future because of collapsed or issues with roads and stuff
[53:03] in there. So um yeah, just wanted to maybe point that out.
[53:10] All right. >> The other Oh, the other piece too on
[53:12] that um is about waving fees and stuff. We can't just decide and I don't think
[53:16] the town can't just wave the fees. You have to understand that the landfill uh
[53:20] while yes is in the town. It's actually manage u managed by a partner nine uh at
[53:25] arms length corporation. Um so the town can't just
[53:31] supersede. Um it is actually its own entity that runs that landfill even
[53:34] though it's by the town. But it's just Yeah, just wanted to point that out.
[53:38] Never hurts to ask. Go ahead, Councelor Gunderson.
[53:41] » Thank you, Chair. Um, so I don't think the the intention wasn't to start doing
[53:46] this tomorrow or next week. It would be to add it to the 2027 budget, but we
[53:51] still need some information from administration as to what the cost would
[53:54] be. Are we going to get tipping fees or not? I I don't I can't really say that.
[53:58] So, I move to defer the dumpster donation discussion to administration
[54:03] and bring back a report to council. >> All right. Any discussion
[54:10] hearing? None. Seeing none, I'll call the question. All those in favor?
[54:13] Any opposed? None. Motion's carried. Counselor vote. Do you have a sub
[54:20] subsidiary motion you'd like to add? No, not at this time.
[54:24] » Okay, we'll carry on.
[54:31] » Go ahead. I would like to make a motion to uh for council to or administration
[54:36] to direct a letter to MLA Bochenko in regards to support
[54:42] uh with the homeless situation at the waste transfer facility.
[54:46] » Great. Thank you.
[54:59] Bochenko >> in regards to support
[55:05] for the
[55:09] » homeless challenge at the waste transfer station. Thank you.
[55:15] » All right. So just a quick question for me if anybody might be aware. Has there
[55:19] been any federal or provincial support in regard to the situation at all in the
[55:23] past? I'm saying I'm thinking no no support. The only thing the only
[55:28] support we get is from the RCMP from time to time, but I don't think
[55:33] there's any other anything else. >> Okay. Go ahead, Glenn. Will you?
[55:36] » Thank you, chair. So, this is probably a good idea to strike while while the iron
[55:40] is hot because we just had a meeting with the MLA. Um, and we did bring up
[55:45] the homeless issue and uh so to keep this relevant, a letter would be a great
[55:49] idea to follow up with.
[55:54] » Okay. Any other discussion? I'll call the question then. All those
[55:58] in favor? Any opposed? Carried. All right. Thank you.
[56:12] All right, item 13 on our agenda package. There's no correspondence for
[56:15] us to consider and then we'll just move into council reports for the month of
[56:20] July
[56:24] and I think we can adopt that. Uh unless there's any other discussion in regard
[56:28] to that.
[56:31] » Councelor Blowski, go ahead. I move to accept council reports for July as
[56:36] presented. >> Thank you. Any discussion?
[56:39] All those in favor? Any opposed? None. Motion's carried.
[56:45] Thank you.
[56:48] All right. Meeting dates. Item 15A, future joint town of Drayton Valley
[56:54] Council meeting. So, does anybody have um
[56:59] any dates picked out? Shane, do you have something that you
[57:02] go with? >> Stand by. Sorry.
[57:05] » Stand by. Okay.
[57:12] Do we have a a a date range that they've given us or is
[57:17] it just throw it at the wall and we'll
[57:22] » I think we're meeting councelor I mean officer Freezen. Go ahead.
[57:26] » Uh thank you chair. Um uh the discussion seems to happen uh regularly when we
[57:31] meet and and there's an expectation that the two groups would like to meet
[57:36] quarterly and so they were seeking some quarterly dates. Uh I know it's always a
[57:40] little bit of challenge to set those dates completely in advance but I think
[57:43] uh um that was the intent councelor Blosski is to is to um try to set up a
[57:49] schedule where we're meeting regularly as in four times a year with our with
[57:53] your peer group from the town.
[58:03] All right. So, Q4 is going to be
[58:11] right after the bi-election. Go ahead. >> I would say before it should be in
[58:16] October. Um it's such an important time because usually we're going into budgets
[58:21] and just to straighten everything out so we're all sort of know where everybody's
[58:26] going and have a that' be a great talk. So I would say uh up throughout October
[58:32] the 13th in the afternoon Tuesday October 13th
[58:39] I'm open. >> Councelor Blowski go ahead. If it can be
[58:45] in the morning, that would be better. On the 13th,
[58:49] » and I leave that day. >> Any other dates on the
[58:52] » uh from the 7th to the 11th works and from the 28th to the 31st works for me.
[58:57] So, if anybody's free for those ones, >> the 9th.
[59:01] I like the 9th. >> You're not Oh, look at that. We're
[59:05] really rolling. >> October.
[59:12] » Yeah. Yeah.
[59:26] » All right. So, we have Friday, October the 9th morning.
[59:29] » Well, it's like >> 9 a.m.
[59:31] choice number two.
[59:35] » You could do the 13th in the afternoon if you want.
[59:39] » I'm not here, but
[59:43] I guess um I could throw out um November the 11th. By then we would have the new
[59:48] Reeve and if >> Oh
[59:51] » yeah, November 11th. The 12th. >> Oh. Oh, thank you.
[59:54] » Yeah. >> Is it 12th?
[59:57] » The 9th. The 9th. November the 9th. I don't know if the re would be in by then
[1:00:01] because the first and then they got how many days before they come in?
[1:00:05] » They might not be sworn in by then. >> Still attend though.
[1:00:19] » [snorts]
[1:00:23] » Okay, that's not that's just a bad idea. Okay, sorry.
[1:00:27] I'm gone. I'm gone from the 12th till the 19th. Perfect.
[1:00:34] » I have NPC. >> Oh, in the morning.
[1:00:37] » In the morning again. to the 10th on the afternoon of November like at
[1:00:41] » two o'clock or one o'clock one o'clock on November 10th.
[1:00:50] » Okay, getting some head nods. November 10th will work.
[1:00:54] » What about October 16th? >> Grab one more.
[1:01:13] Okay. Is two dates enough? You want to try for the 14th? 14th, 15th of October.
[1:01:17] Anything in there? It's got an ASB there somewhere on the 14th in the morning.
[1:01:24] » You're gone that week.
[1:01:33] Carol, what have you got? >> I cannot do the 15th. I have browser
[1:01:36] foundation that morning.
[1:01:41] » Okay. >> The 14th is clear.
[1:01:45] » Yeah, in the morning. >> We could do afternoon. 14th we will be
[1:01:49] without Shane. So, preferably not >> and without Cara. Okay. So, that won't
[1:01:56] work. So, we're just going to stick to those two dates.
[1:01:59] and hope for the best.
[1:02:04] » Counselor, >> are we looking to set some um kind of
[1:02:07] firm future dates per quarter? >> That'd be nice.
[1:02:10] » Uh some options and then that way we're not doing this at the last minute going
[1:02:15] this is, you know, um if we put them out for the next
[1:02:19] » year or something along that line, just a certain date per quarter and then we
[1:02:24] can work around that as we draw closer to it. That way the town can work with
[1:02:28] us as well.
[1:02:37] » Yeah,
[1:02:45] it's easier to plan when the dates are in in effect previously than to come
[1:02:49] back and try and pick a date going forward because schedules fill up pretty
[1:02:53] darn quickly. So, Sure.
[1:02:59] » That's time.
[1:03:05] » Sure. We can try that. >> Okay. Yeah. Okay. Be great. Thank you.
[1:03:09] » All right. So, we'll just stick to those two dates.
[1:03:17] » That helps. Okay. Uh would you like a motion to adopt those dates or is that
[1:03:22] okay? >> You're okay. We're okay. All right.
[1:03:26] We're going to move on then. Okay. So, all we have remaining is
[1:03:33] um do we have an ASB um meeting dates for ASB producer
[1:03:39] appreciation dinner? November 13th, Easy Ford Hall. Do we have um someone from a
[1:03:45] services who'd like to speak into this or
[1:03:50] » just authorize council attendance? Okay. Council, go ahead. I move to authorize
[1:03:54] council's attendance to the ASB producer appreciation dinner November 13th, 2026
[1:03:58] at the Eastford Hall. >> Fantastic.
[1:04:01] Any questions? Any discussion? Hearing none and seeing none, I'll call
[1:04:05] a question. All those in favor? Any opposed? None. Motion's carried.
[1:04:11] Councelor Harris has not joined us. She has not. All right, let's carry on.
[1:04:18] Last but certainly not least for meeting dates, 15C.
[1:04:21] um member of parliament, Mr. Lloyd, and we just need a ratification again.
[1:04:29] Okay. And that was
[1:04:34] Council Gunderson. Go ahead. I move to approve the meeting date with MP Dane
[1:04:40] Lloyd, September the 9th, 2026, 5:30 p.m. at the county office, I believe.
[1:04:47] » No, it was somewhere else, wasn't it? Yeah, we have we have booked the um uh
[1:04:52] private meeting room at Mitch's uh restaurant to meet with the
[1:04:55] » at Mitch's in Drayton Valley. >> All right. Any discussion?
[1:05:01] All those in favor? Any opposed? None. Motion's carried.
[1:05:07] Thank you. >> Go ahead.
[1:05:11] » I'm not opposed to it. Um would council be interested in just
[1:05:16] sorting out who's paying for this? Are we going to make Dne pay for it or the
[1:05:20] county? So, >> okay. I move I move that uh Freso County
[1:05:24] Council pay for the dinner. >> Thank you, Glenn.
[1:05:30] » All right. Um yeah, I guess that's an order. Uh any
[1:05:35] discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? No one opposed. Motion's
[1:05:41] carried. Thank you.
[1:05:48] All right, I think we're just going to go into delegations at 10 o'clock. Why
[1:05:51] don't we break uh quick for five minutes and then we'll come back. Is that all
[1:05:55] right? All right, we're on recess. Thank you. See you in five.
[1:08:16] Good morning, Mandy. Can you hear us? Maddie, sorry.
[1:08:20] » That's okay. Uh, yes, I can hear you. Can you hear me? Okay.
[1:08:23] » Loud and clear. So, council's just on a break and then if you just stand by,
[1:08:28] you'll hear them come back shortly. Ted, >> perfect. Thank you so much.
[1:08:32] » Thank you.
[1:09:59] Maddie, I'm going to make you the presenter, so you should be able to
[1:10:02] share your screen. Are you comfortable with that?
[1:10:05] » Yes, that works. >> Thank you.
[1:10:08] » Thanks. Turn this off.
[1:13:55] Okay, Council Gunnerson, take your seat, please. Let's go. There's two of us.
[1:14:56] All right, it's 10 o'clock. It's time for our delegations. We'll start with
[1:15:00] our 10:00 appointment. And looks like we have Maddie online from uh Food Recycle
[1:15:05] Programs. Good morning. Hello. How are you?
[1:15:08] » Good. >> Good morning. Thanks so much for having
[1:15:10] me. I'm doing well. I guess I'll just jump in and share my
[1:15:14] screen and get started. >> Oh, sure. Right. Go ahead. Thank you.
[1:15:19] » Perfect. Okay.
[1:15:24] Okay. Okay. I believe you can all see that. Um, so good morning. Okay. Great.
[1:15:30] So, good morning, Reef, members of council and staff. Again, thank you for
[1:15:33] having me. My name is Maddie and I am the programs account executive at Food
[1:15:37] Cycle Science and I'm here today to discuss a framework for sustainable food
[1:15:41] food waste management in uh Brazil County.
[1:15:45] So food cycle science is a proud Canadian company. Uh we're based in
[1:15:49] Ottawa, Ontario. We were founded in 2011 by a team of engineers, scientists, and
[1:15:54] food waste experts. And we are just 100% focused on creating food waste diversion
[1:16:00] solutions. Um so to do that we've created our technology called the food
[1:16:04] cyclinger and we provide this technology and solution um across you know retail
[1:16:09] levels. We partner with businesses, not for-profit organizations, schools and
[1:16:14] then finally municipalities like yours like yours uh which is of course the
[1:16:18] program that I'm going to be discussing and sharing more about today.
[1:16:22] So to date, we've partnered with more than 175 Canadian municipalities in nine
[1:16:27] provinces and two territories from small, rural, and remote communities all
[1:16:32] the way to highly populated and dense cities um helping them divert their food
[1:16:37] waste and save on waste management costs. So in Alberta, we have about 13
[1:16:41] programs so far and the communities with programs closest to you would of course
[1:16:45] be Drayton Valley and then Lome County and Black Faults.
[1:16:53] Oh. Oh, just holding on there. Okay. So, over the last few years, you know, the
[1:16:56] issue surrounding food waste has become a common topic of discussion for many
[1:17:00] reasons. Um, the main reason being that when food waste is improperly disposed
[1:17:05] of and put into the landfill, it produces a greenhouse gas, methane. Uh
[1:17:10] if food loss and waste were a country, it would actually be the third highest
[1:17:14] greenhouse gas emitting nation behind the US and China, showing just how much
[1:17:19] you know uh carbon footprint that can have. So when you talk about reducing
[1:17:24] your carbon footprint, food waste really isn't something that we can ignore. It
[1:17:28] is truly uh and pun intended the lowhanging fruit to improving our
[1:17:32] environment. The solution is really simple. It's right in front of us. You
[1:17:35] know, you can buy less. You can use your leftovers properly. And then when the
[1:17:39] time comes, you can recycle your food waste.
[1:17:43] So how does that impact a municipality like yours? Well, since food waste makes
[1:17:47] up about half of household waste, it causes a lot of unnecessary expenses.
[1:17:52] You know, managing food waste is expensive for a municipality as is. And
[1:17:56] when you consider that, you know, half of what's going to your transfer station
[1:18:00] is material that doesn't need to be going there, [music] uh, can be a little
[1:18:04] bit frustrating and seem a little silly. And then as mentioned, you know, when
[1:18:08] organic waste is put into the landfill, it produces methane gas. Um, and there's
[1:18:12] a major focus right now being put on reducing our emissions. And so we uh we
[1:18:17] we believe that there's going to be regulations coming into effect soon um
[1:18:23] mandating that food waste is banned from the landfill. We've already seen two
[1:18:26] provincial governments uh put pressures uh on their municipalities to do this.
[1:18:30] And so we we believe that this is only going to continue across the country.
[1:18:35] And then at the community level, you know, food waste in the garbage means
[1:18:39] more frequent uh trips to your transfer site. It also just means more garbage to
[1:18:43] manage and it's smelly. Um and so you know that uh the food waste is
[1:18:48] attractive for animals like bears and raccoons who love to rubbage through our
[1:18:52] trash. Um and again, it just doesn't need to be there. So if we can remove
[1:18:56] food waste from the garbage, we're going to eliminate all of these issues and
[1:19:00] greatly reduce the amount of waste that's in your community.
[1:19:03] Now, at this point, I'm sure you're thinking, uh, great, it's a problem, but
[1:19:07] haven't we solved this already? And that's right. There are a few solutions
[1:19:11] already out there. So, there's green bins, which are common in big cities
[1:19:15] with high population density and the right infrastructure. However, green
[1:19:19] bins can be cost prohibitive or operationally challenging to implement
[1:19:23] in a more rural or remote setting. But we've also seen across the country,
[1:19:28] green bin programs struggle to get high participation rates. So, um, you know,
[1:19:32] it just means that there's still food waste going to the landfill and this
[1:19:35] isn't necessarily solving our problem. And then there's backyard composting,
[1:19:39] which I'm sure we'd all agree is the ideal solution. Um, but the problem is
[1:19:44] backyard composting isn't feasible for everybody. Uh, maybe you don't live in a
[1:19:48] place with a backyard or it's a little bit challenging in the winter and so it
[1:19:52] um inhibits some people from continuing to do it and do it properly. So, um
[1:19:57] there's also a concern with backyard composting that it attracts animals and
[1:20:00] bears. So, um warranted. Some people just don't want to do it. And then
[1:20:05] finally, the last um not necessarily a solution, but the last thing you could
[1:20:09] do is continue to put food waste into the landfill, but as mentioned, the
[1:20:13] long-term impacts are harmful to the environment and um municipal bank
[1:20:17] accounts. And so, to solve this problem, we have
[1:20:22] created the food cyclinger. So, essentially, it's an in-home appliance,
[1:20:26] and this should be a video that plays. Um, it it's an in-home appliance. It's
[1:20:30] about the same size as an air fryer. It's really simple to use. You put your
[1:20:34] food waste into the machine. Uh, you push one button and then in a matter of
[1:20:38] hours, your food waste has been recycled. So, it handles all types of
[1:20:43] food waste. That includes dairy, meat, bones, pits, um towels, coffee, coffee
[1:20:49] filters, you know, anything really that's edible can go into it. Uh most
[1:20:54] people keep it in their kitchen, but you could put it in a basement or a heated
[1:20:57] garage, anywhere with a plug. And then there's a a bucket that would live in
[1:21:01] your count in your kitchen like a kitchen catcher. Each cycle takes about
[1:21:05] 4 to 8 hours to complete and uses about 1 kilowatt hour of power, which costs
[1:21:09] about 10 to 15 cents per cycle. And then the resulting end product is a
[1:21:14] nutrient-rich resource that has many um benefits. And I'm going to go on those
[1:21:18] go over those in the next slide here. So we call this end product that you're
[1:21:22] left with fertilizer. It's just your food waste that's been heated and you
[1:21:27] know ground down. It's reduced in weight and volume by up to 90% leaving it
[1:21:31] completely dry and an inert biomass with many uses. So most people will use it to
[1:21:36] fertilize their garden soil right at home. You can add it to any type of
[1:21:40] backyard composting system. It integrates well uh with an existing leaf
[1:21:44] and yard waste system. You could drop it off at a compost site at a local farm or
[1:21:48] or community garden. Um and then of course you can add it to a green bin as
[1:21:52] well. But it's uh there's many uses for this byproduct and we find that our
[1:21:56] residents don't have issues coming up with any.
[1:22:00] I also want to mention that from an environmental standpoint, when you look
[1:22:03] at the carbon footprint of the food cyclinger, um, over a seven-year period,
[1:22:07] it's actually a net negative carbon solution. So, the graph on the left
[1:22:11] breaks down the emissions. And while there are of course upfront emissions
[1:22:14] from manufacturing, energy use, end of life disposal, it is recyclable. Um, but
[1:22:19] these are all far outweighed by the emissions that are avoided from food
[1:22:23] waste not going to the landfill. Um, ending up with a net negative carbon
[1:22:28] footprint. So you can still uh feel good about using the food cyclinger and it's
[1:22:32] actually preventing more emissions than it produced.
[1:22:36] And then from a uh an economic um standpoint, you know, the traditional
[1:22:41] method of managing organic waste, which would be that green bin service we
[1:22:44] typically think of is um heavy burden system with cost at every step. But the
[1:22:49] food cyclinger is a decentralized system um that you know makes the food waste be
[1:22:55] able to be managed right in the home so you can avoid these unnecessary
[1:22:59] additional um costs to municipalities and residents.
[1:23:04] And then for residents, of course, I kind of alluded to this throughout the
[1:23:07] presentation, but one of the biggest benefits we hear is how easy and clean
[1:23:11] the experience now is. So, you know, typically food waste um is associated
[1:23:15] with an ick factor. It's smelly, it's wet, it's moldy, it kind of creates a
[1:23:19] mess. Um, but because we're drying it and turning it into a sterile, odorless
[1:23:24] end product, that ick factor is gone. Your garbage is less smelly and your
[1:23:28] garbage also just has [music] less in it. So, here's a photo from one of our
[1:23:32] residents um in AR prior. This is in Ontario, but after using uh the food
[1:23:38] cyclinger for about a week, she sent this photo to us. It's just a she had
[1:23:41] left a little bag of garbage at the end of the curb. So really represents um the
[1:23:46] impact that the food cyclinger can have. But aside from that photo, so we uh we
[1:23:52] run a pilot program with our food cyclinger when we work with
[1:23:54] municipalities. And so here's a snapshot of results from those programs. Um we
[1:23:59] have really high participation rates. So over 90% of participants continue to use
[1:24:04] the food cyclinger after the pilot period. Um recommendation rate of about
[1:24:08] 96%. And then finally, kind of the main points is that on average, households
[1:24:13] are able to divert about 250 kg of food waste per year using the food cycler. So
[1:24:19] based on these results, you know, if every household in your county had a
[1:24:23] food cyclinger, we could estimate that you would divert about 715 metric tons
[1:24:28] of food waste per year from the landfill or from going to your transfer station.
[1:24:34] So, our municipal program begins with a 12-week pilot phase designed to test the
[1:24:39] viability of this solution in the community before considering any future
[1:24:43] expansions. Um, so how it would work is residents would sign up to receive a
[1:24:48] food cyclinger from the municipality. They track their usage of the food
[1:24:52] cyclinger over the next 12 weeks. Um, and then at the end they would provide
[1:24:56] us with that data along with answering a few other questions about, you know, how
[1:25:00] they found the experience. And then we would compile those results and we
[1:25:05] present them back to you uh so you can evaluate the program and we can talk
[1:25:09] about next steps. Meanwhile, the residents would keep their food cyclers
[1:25:13] and they keep using it and and you would receive uh those continued benefits from
[1:25:17] food waste not going to the landfill. So for the initial pilot, I would
[1:25:22] recommend about 150 household program. uh this size would provide enough um it
[1:25:28] would generate enough meaningful data so that you could um you know evaluate the
[1:25:32] program across your your county and consider a strategic roll out
[1:25:36] afterwards. So let's say you were to fully subsidize the cost of 150 food
[1:25:42] cyclinger Eco3s which is our smaller model. It holds three and a half L of
[1:25:46] food waste. That would be investment of about $45,000 plus shipping and taxes.
[1:25:51] Um but this is just a starting point. So always happy to, you know, work with
[1:25:55] staff really to figure out what's going to be best for your county um and your
[1:26:00] municipality's needs and budget. So included in the program is also our
[1:26:05] team support, which is really where we stand out. So most programs don't fail
[1:26:10] because of the tools, they fail because of adoption. You know, there's confusion
[1:26:14] and there's small frustrations that can add up quickly. So we make a point
[1:26:18] really not to just drop off, you know, your food cyclers and kind of leave. Um,
[1:26:22] we assign you a dedicated program manager who would provide readytouse
[1:26:26] communications, education materials, and we make sure that residents really
[1:26:31] understand the program from day one so that they continue to keep using the
[1:26:35] food cyclinger. We also handle questions, troubleshooting, warranties
[1:26:39] so that your staff don't have to. Um, and most importantly, we just stay
[1:26:42] engaged over time to try and keep participation high, protecting those
[1:26:47] results that you're going to be benefiting from.
[1:26:50] So lastly, here are some reasons that may resonate with you as you consider
[1:26:53] whether you should pilot with us. The first is that you have the opportunity
[1:26:57] to uh trial this technology at well below market rates and test an organic
[1:27:02] solution before fully implementing, which is really important. Uh you'll
[1:27:07] also see immediate impactful benefits such as waste diversion, lower disposal
[1:27:11] costs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But overall, you're able to
[1:27:15] provide your constituents with an innovative municipal service while being
[1:27:18] a steward for the environment. So, I welcome Brazo County as a partner
[1:27:24] in the fight against food waste as I believe your community would be a great
[1:27:27] fit for this program. Today, all I ask is you receive my presentation as
[1:27:31] information and should there be interest in exploring a partnership um with us
[1:27:35] that you refer to staff for a report and recommendation.
[1:27:39] So, thank you so much. I am able to answer any questions that you might have
[1:27:43] and I'll stop sharing my screen. >> All right, terrific. Maddie, you're
[1:27:48] clearly an expert in your field. I was just going to ask a couple of questions.
[1:27:52] One would be how long would your food cycler last? What's its life cycle?
[1:27:56] » And uh are there larger applications for commercial type kitchens?
[1:28:01] » Great question. Thank you so much. So the food cyclinger's lifespan is about 7
[1:28:05] to 10 years. Um as I mentioned, it is fully recyclable. So, um, at the end of
[1:28:10] that lifespan, we just ask residents to bring it to an e-waste facility so it's
[1:28:15] properly recycled. Um, I'll add on to that that the warranty for our our pilot
[1:28:21] programs and for the um for the unit would be three years. So, any issues
[1:28:25] that happen are going to be covered under that warranty. Um, and then in
[1:28:29] terms of the commercial unit, we are in um we're in kind of a a second phase
[1:28:35] right now of producing a commercial unit. um just kind of working out some
[1:28:39] issues, but we expect that that's going to be ready um summer of 2027. So, that
[1:28:45] unit would um hold it has two 12 L buckets um and it's the same type of
[1:28:51] grinding technology. So, it's it's just well suited for restaurants that service
[1:28:56] maybe uh 30 to 50 seats, something like that, but or schools, things like that.
[1:29:01] There's various applications for it. So, just nice to have that extra capacity.
[1:29:08] All right. Well, that's brilliant. Uh definitely a good cause to be taking up.
[1:29:11] Thank you for that. Council, would you have any questions or comments for
[1:29:14] Maddie before we let her go? We have a pretty quiet council this
[1:29:19] morning. Well, thank you, Maddie. It's a pleasure meeting you. We're going to
[1:29:21] ruminate on uh your proposal and we'll be getting back to you likely if we uh
[1:29:27] want to pursue that. Oh, Carol, we have one question from councelor. Go ahead,
[1:29:30] councelor Vul. >> Hi, Maddie. Um [clears throat] I see
[1:29:33] that you did the town of Drayton Valley. um when did you do that project and what
[1:29:37] was what was the um outcome of of the town of Drayton Valley's uh
[1:29:43] uh >> Great question. Yeah, so um we've kind
[1:29:47] of been working with Drayton Valley since um about 2023. So they have uh
[1:29:53] they started with 100 unit pilot and then progressed to 250 units um so a
[1:30:00] total of about 350 units um in their community. There are some that are still
[1:30:05] available. So, we're still actively working with them to get those in um in
[1:30:09] residents hands. Um but we are uh in works talking with them about a next
[1:30:15] step and um expanding that to more households. So, that's kind of in the
[1:30:21] works this September I believe. Um and yeah, we're just going to continue to
[1:30:25] see how things go. But they the results of their first pilot, I'll add um so
[1:30:30] they were using our older technology. This is a little complicated. So, we
[1:30:34] used an older one called the FC30 and that was smaller capacity. But with that
[1:30:39] unit and one of our larger units, residents there were diverting about 189
[1:30:45] kg per household per year. So, um you know the capacity increases with the FC
[1:30:51] or with our um Eco3 which I recommended and so that's where you can see more
[1:30:56] diversion. But, uh, yeah, they had great results and residents are still
[1:31:01] continuing to use their their, uh, units, which is nice.
[1:31:04] » Thank you very much. >> All right. Terrific. All right. Thank
[1:31:09] you, Maddie. It's been a real pleasure, and um, I look forward to hearing from
[1:31:12] you again in the future, >> and I think I'll ask this council for on
[1:31:16] a motion to adopt this for information. >> So, thank you.
[1:31:20] » Thank you so much. I hope you have a great rest of your meeting.
[1:31:22] » Okay. Thank you. We'll see you later. All right, council. Any many motions
[1:31:26] from the floor?
[1:31:30] » Council vote. Go ahead. >> I move to adopt the presentation from
[1:31:36] the municipal solutions food cyclinger program from Maddie um as presented.
[1:31:42] » All right. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor?
[1:31:46] It's carried unanimously. Thank you.
[1:31:55] All right. Well, that's a good report.
[1:32:07] All right. Well, we're a little bit ahead of time right now, but um I see
[1:32:11] I'm assuming you're Sergeant Kevin uh Mortimer. So yeah, if you're ready,
[1:32:17] sir, come on up and um you may have the podium and u welcome to
[1:32:23] Braz County. I'm not sure that I've met you before, but welcome. How are you?
[1:32:28] » We uh popped into one of your previous council meetings there a few months ago,
[1:32:31] but >> relatively new to the area uh just since
[1:32:35] January. Uh Staff Gilchrist is away on vacation, so I'll present on her behalf.
[1:32:42] um just uh she prepared the uh slides and ran the statistics. The statistics
[1:32:48] I'm going to cover are from uh the calendar year January 2026 till July. Uh
[1:32:55] so the first a little over half of the year. Um overall we've seen a 22%
[1:33:01] decrease in total criminal offenses. Um and I'll break down some of those. Um
[1:33:08] you'll see on I don't know if you have Pardon me.
[1:33:14] » Uh, yep. Yep. Um, so just to start uh breaking down uh
[1:33:21] property crime, uh, Breton Detachment uh responded to 32%
[1:33:28] uh fewer breakin files uh comparing January to July 2026 to January to July
[1:33:36] 2025. And um similar numbers for theft of
[1:33:41] motor vehicles, a decrease of 33% to last year. Uh theft
[1:33:46] under $5,000. Uh decrease of 27%
[1:33:52] of respondent to files this year compared to last year.
[1:33:57] And comparing uh person's crime, so far this
[1:34:02] year, we responded to five fewer prop uh persons crime offenses. And total number
[1:34:08] of offenses, it's 68 fewer property crime related offenses this year um
[1:34:15] through July compared to last year. Um in the month of July,
[1:34:22] zero theft of motor vehicles from um Breton
[1:34:27] area, zero brick and enters in July,
[1:34:32] zero provincial roadside suspensions in July.
[1:34:36] Uh year to date, uh we had three alcohol-related suspensions.
[1:34:42] Spuzzle boost, there were a total of seven files in the month of July. Year
[1:34:48] to date, that brings us to 34. And then um linking in our partner agency, victim
[1:34:54] services, 15 files
[1:35:00] through the Breton Detachment. Uh, five active referrals were accepted, six
[1:35:05] declined. Um, uh, three proactive referrals
[1:35:11] out of our 152 files that could have gone to victim services.
[1:35:18] And there's just a graphic explaining these stats I went through. 7% decrease
[1:35:24] in person's crime. uh 26 overall percent decrease in
[1:35:29] property crime and uh
[1:35:33] the number of instances um reflected at the bottom uh nine fewer breaking
[1:35:41] enters, seven fewer theft of motor vehicles, and 14 fewer theft unders over
[1:35:47] the course of again January to July 2026 versus 2025.
[1:35:54] Here's essentially another way uh to break it down. Um
[1:36:00] but we've also prepared the number of files annually over those months. Uh
[1:36:06] you'll see obviously there was a big jump back in 2024 compared to the
[1:36:11] previous years. um 2022 2023
[1:36:17] regarding persons crime threats is that big number but uh consistent over the
[1:36:23] last three years 2024 25 26 there hasn't been much of an increase in those
[1:36:29] persons crime threats uh property crime these are the the main
[1:36:34] numbers obviously that I've been speaking about so far um 27% reduction
[1:36:40] in overall property crime they see compared to last. Um those are the
[1:36:46] breakdown of the different types of files. Property crime includes mis
[1:36:50] mischief, arson, fraud, possession of stolen property, theft under, theft
[1:36:56] over, theft of motor vehicle, and break and enter in for a total number so far
[1:37:01] this year of 189 compared to last year is 258 which is a reduction of 27%.
[1:37:10] Uh looking at our heat map here, this is the number of calls received by Breton
[1:37:15] Detachment um by any day of the week and over the
[1:37:20] 24-hour time period. Uh most calls or most files are generated typically
[1:37:26] during business hours, uh Monday to Friday, uh during between that 8 and 300
[1:37:32] p.m. time there. Um the percentage of files that Breton
[1:37:38] responds to Brazo County uh is 40% of the files. Uh the village of Breton
[1:37:45] itself is about 11% of the files that the detachment responds to. And then
[1:37:49] Watasment County uh encompasses a little over 40% of the calls. Then a variety of
[1:37:55] um other areas such as like Buck Creek or Lindale might be scored uh creating
[1:38:00] those smaller percentages there. The top file types uh that we respond to um and
[1:38:08] are investigated by member possession of property obtained by crime
[1:38:13] over um is about 5%. Uh the most
[1:38:19] frequently uh investigated file type is motor ve motor vehicle collisions and
[1:38:28] other moving traffic such as speeding or traffic related offenses
[1:38:33] given our many miles of highway. Uh file count this year is down in
[1:38:39] Breton detachment. Um so far this year 974 files compared to last year's 1,800.
[1:38:53] And uh just because of our um calls for service, uh we developed
[1:38:59] our priorities for the year. Uh very similar to last year. Uh priority number
[1:39:05] one uh crime reduction through prol prolific offender management. And uh
[1:39:10] there are sub goals to tackle that. Uh members documenting conditions checks
[1:39:15] such as curfew and um and other such conditions. Uh they document hotspot
[1:39:23] checks every time they frequent one of the locations identified as a hot spot
[1:39:29] and crime mapping is used to determine the areas that we focus on the first
[1:39:34] quarter. And these priorities are f by the fiscal year which began April. So,
[1:39:39] April to July. In the first quarter, members completed 36 conditions checks,
[1:39:44] laid one breach charge, uh, and completed 454 hotspot patrols.
[1:39:51] Our second priority is crime reduction and with an effort to reduce property
[1:39:56] theft. Our sub goals uh and strategies for
[1:40:01] achieving that uh include recruiting additional confidential and human
[1:40:05] sources as well as uh completing a specialized
[1:40:09] project every quarter and partnering with our uh central Alberta district
[1:40:15] crime reduction unit and uh employing one of um one of their avenues to deter
[1:40:22] property crime is deploying utilizing a bait program different bait
[1:40:26] assets and in the first quarter of this year, we have deployed bait assets in
[1:40:30] the area and um
[1:40:34] there have been at least one search warrant that was executed uh in Breton
[1:40:39] detachment area related to stolen property.
[1:40:44] The third priority is safe roads initiative. Um this first quarter we
[1:40:49] completed uh uh 10 check stops, 172 violator contacts were made. Uh tickets
[1:40:57] are issued, 55 written warnings, 58 verbal warnings, five IRS suspensions
[1:41:03] for impaired driving, one IRS warning, two 24-hour suspensions are issued. Um
[1:41:10] the strategies to achieve that objective are additional check stops and joint
[1:41:15] force operations with our partner agencies.
[1:41:19] And um we've uh instituted a minimum number
[1:41:24] of um traffic stops per member per work set. Uh so we aim for about five
[1:41:29] violator contacts per member per work set, which works out to at least one
[1:41:34] traffic stop a day per member as a minimum. Uh presentations at local
[1:41:39] schools and uh road safety related community engagements.
[1:41:46] some highlights over the past or the first quarter of the year. I'll just
[1:41:51] highlight some of these files. On May 21st, 2026, Brett and RCMP responded to
[1:41:55] the scene of a dirt bike collision south of Winfield in Wataswin County.
[1:41:59] 20-year-old male was ejected off a dirt bike and was transported to the Royal
[1:42:03] Alex Hospital by EMS. And uh the driver was suspected to be impaired and that
[1:42:08] investigation is ongoing, waiting for analysis of the suspect's blood. On May
[1:42:14] 27th, Breton RCMP received a report of vehicle matching the description of one
[1:42:19] used in recent lease site thefts uh from other counties. RCMP located and seized
[1:42:26] the vehicle uh which was in the village of Breton. Uh we seized it for a search
[1:42:31] warrant. Stolen items were recovered from one of the other breakin enters. U
[1:42:37] and charges uh traffic charges were laid in that one. Um, we had insufficient
[1:42:42] evidence to lay criminal charges. On June 12th, 2026, Brett RCP responded
[1:42:48] to a disturbance on a rural property. Prior to RCMP arrival, the subject of
[1:42:53] complaint drove away from the property intoxicated. Subject and vehicle were
[1:42:58] located by RCMP a short time later and the driver received an IRS refusal.
[1:43:03] Vehicle was towed from the roadway. On June 29th, 2026, Brett RCP responded to
[1:43:08] a report of theft of tools and other items uh from a complainant's property
[1:43:13] in Brazo County. Uh an air tag assisted us in uh locating the stolen items at a
[1:43:20] residence of a prolific offender near Buck Lake. Search warrant was executed.
[1:43:25] Most of the stolen items were recovered. Charges were laid and actually we have
[1:43:29] uh gone through court on that one. There was a conviction against 43-year-old
[1:43:34] Merlin Becker. On July 6th, Brett Ner St. Peter
[1:43:38] responded to a camper fire on a property in Brazo County. Uh an 82y old man was
[1:43:44] located deceased. Um that investigation still ongoing with assistance of our
[1:43:49] central Alberta District GIS unit, general investigation.
[1:43:54] On July 16th, uh 2026, the large police presence descended upon Lindale. Uh we
[1:44:01] were looking for a male wanted on an outstanding warrant. Uh subject fled
[1:44:04] from our uh district crime reduction unit members during an attempted vehicle
[1:44:09] stop in which an RCP member sustained injuries um with assistance from air
[1:44:15] services. The EPS helicopter was in the air. We had emergency response team and
[1:44:21] PDS and neighboring detachments assist us with that. Uh we eventually located
[1:44:26] and arrested 56y old Bradley Degan. Uh several additional charges came from
[1:44:31] that incident and Degan was initially remanded into custody. On July 17th,
[1:44:38] Brett RCP responded to Highway 39 and Range Road 60 for a two vehicle
[1:44:44] collision. The male driver of a Dodge and Nitro was pronounced deceased on
[1:44:48] scene. Female driver of a Ford F350 pulling a horse trailer was airlifted by
[1:44:53] STARS to the UVA with life-threatening injuries. female passenger of the F350
[1:44:59] was not seriously injured. That investigation is also ongoing. And
[1:45:03] finally, on July 29th, Thor Breton members participated in the Brazo County
[1:45:09] commercial and passenger vehicle safety check stop with
[1:45:14] county bylaw. Uh, collectively approximately 150 vehicles were stopped
[1:45:19] and inspected. And I believe that's it for statistics.
[1:45:24] uh further to any questions that you guys have.
[1:45:29] » Any questions? Council councelor Gunderson, go right ahead.
[1:45:32] » No questions. But that was a great report. Um you guys have been really
[1:45:36] busy obviously. Um through the chair, too. I think that's Mr. Dingwall in the
[1:45:41] back. Am I right, Terry? Mark, correct? So, your your bylaw 1256-26
[1:45:49] uh was given first reading, so it's already been done. I don't know if
[1:45:52] you're waiting for that or public input. I just thought I'd let you know that if
[1:45:55] you're waiting for that bylaw, we've already dealt with that issue.
[1:46:02] » And first reading passed. >> All right. Any other comments or
[1:46:07] questions for Carol? Go ahead. >> I do too. And I I see your proactive
[1:46:11] approach of uh going out and checking on and doing some hotspot checks and stuff
[1:46:15] has been very um uh uh advantageous because your your stats are down. Uh is
[1:46:23] that due to you know maybe keeping some of those prolific offenders at bay? Are
[1:46:27] they are they in jail or are they tied up or
[1:46:31] » Yeah, I would say certainly in part at least uh the hotspot checks um the a
[1:46:37] good portion of our identified hotspots are the residences of said prolific
[1:46:42] offenders in our area um to try and keep tabs on them. Um
[1:46:47] some of them have moved uh some of them have been in jail which definitely leads
[1:46:53] to a reduction in calls for service. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh I just want to just
[1:46:58] double check the RCMP member that sustained injuries. Is he okay?
[1:47:02] » Uh yeah, it was um I uh it was one of the district um covert or plain clothes
[1:47:09] members of the district crime reduction unit.
[1:47:11] » I believe he had a concussion >> and um some minor injuries to his wrist
[1:47:17] or hand. Um and he is still working so not not serious.
[1:47:21] » Thanks for asking. >> Thank you.
[1:47:26] All right. Well, I don't see any other questions coming from council other than
[1:47:30] thank you very much for your service to our community. Appreciate you coming in
[1:47:33] today and keeping us informed. >> Of course. Thank you.
[1:47:35] » So, carry on, sir. As you were.
[1:47:40] All right, Staff Sergeant, take the podium if you would. How are you this
[1:47:44] morning? >> Good. How are you guys?
[1:47:45] » Oh, great. Really great. >> Did I turn that on?
[1:47:50] » Yep, you're good. >> Perfect. All right. Good morning,
[1:47:55] Huh? You gonna move it? >> Okay. Uh, the only thing of that of
[1:48:01] note, uh, is they let everybody know that we're going to be changing our
[1:48:05] color scheme, which we've had since I joined the force, which is 20 years ago.
[1:48:08] So, we're going to go back to the old black and whites, which is kind of fun.
[1:48:10] I think it'll look it's going to be cool, I think, actually. Um, so yeah,
[1:48:16] it's kind of fun. It's a throwback and I think they're going to look sharp and
[1:48:20] it's fun to do change. Uh, also of note, uh, you can see we're wearing blue. So,
[1:48:26] this is now the approved and issued shirt. It's one of the other things for
[1:48:29] our modernization. It's actually much nicer than
[1:48:34] the old one, which is from the 70s. Uh, it's just got the like moisture wicking
[1:48:39] and it's just better in every way. So, you'll stop seeing the gray, which is
[1:48:44] very been around for a lot of years, so people might have trouble with that
[1:48:47] transition, but we like this. So, >> may I share something kind of cool?
[1:48:51] » Yeah. When I was at Depo, I actually got to go um see where I I'm not sure the
[1:48:56] quite the quite words, but the seamstress. So, all their uniforms um
[1:49:00] pants and shirts are all made in Depo and it was um quite the building and
[1:49:04] quite the operation. >> Yeah.
[1:49:06] » Um and I believe you have to get everything through that. Any shirts,
[1:49:09] pants, anything that is >> Well, pants we can now buy outside, but
[1:49:12] yeah, shirts and everything is ordered through our store system.
[1:49:15] » Um so, yeah. So, you're going to stop seeing the gray. uh members have kind of
[1:49:19] been wearing it quite a bit in and out already, but now this is officially uh
[1:49:24] what you're going to mostly see. The gray will phase out um because of just
[1:49:29] numbers that they're trying to kit up. They're only allowing us a couple orders
[1:49:33] of blues right now. So, you might see a little bit of back and forth, but by a
[1:49:36] year from now, you're only going to see us in blue. Uh that kind of goes our
[1:49:39] whole modernization go vehicles, the shirts, the pistol. We have four people
[1:49:43] carrying the new pistol. The rest of us will be trained in the next five months.
[1:49:46] So we are getting more up to date which is exciting.
[1:49:53] Uh move on. I'll walk through. So our
[1:49:57] priorities our first we sat down we figured those out. So our first one was
[1:50:01] curfew checks. I forgot to put the number in there uh that we did which I
[1:50:04] will rectify next time. Uh I think our goal is 200 and I we were on track to
[1:50:10] meet that. So, I I don't want to say the exact number because I can't remember
[1:50:13] what it was, but uh our members kept up with the curfew checks. Uh led to a
[1:50:17] couple individuals being arrested and remanded because they weren't around. Um
[1:50:22] so, we'll stay on top of that. The other one, our drug trafficking, reduce drug
[1:50:27] trafficking, drug use in the community. That one they had, our plane close team
[1:50:31] had a really good quarter. Um they did three proactive investigations. Their
[1:50:34] goal is one a quarter just because of the length of time they take, but they
[1:50:38] did three. Uh 20 people were arrested out of those three. Some of those uh not
[1:50:43] everybody gets charged in those, but it's good to have some interdiction
[1:50:47] anyways. And four individuals were charged with the offenses. Sometimes
[1:50:51] when we hit a house, we just have one or two targets in that house.
[1:50:55] » But there's the one house we arrested 10 people out of. So, and we had target one
[1:51:01] and target two that we were actually looking for in there. So, they are the
[1:51:03] only two that catch charges. But everybody else gets arrested, searched,
[1:51:07] made sure they don't have warrants. Sometimes we find them on warrants, that
[1:51:10] type of idea. So, it's always good. Hotspot patrols of police visibility.
[1:51:14] This is kind of new this year. We added to it. So, you can see we're doing lots.
[1:51:19] So, playgrounds and schools. We are in we have 291 rural communities. Uh we're
[1:51:25] crush the guys are crushing it getting out and uh patrolling through them. So,
[1:51:28] we had over 500 patrols through rural communities and over 500 patrols past
[1:51:32] our hotspots. Um, so we didn't really know where to set numbers for that
[1:51:37] because we haven't really tracked the hotspots uh or rural communities the
[1:51:40] same. We did campgrounds before. Um, but so I think our target numbers are low
[1:51:45] because we are blowing our targets out of the water, but uh we'll adjust for
[1:51:51] next year. And then of course community engagement remains a priority for our
[1:51:55] detachment. So we did our open house. That one was really successful this
[1:51:58] year. I think we had the most we've had in a long time. We had about 500 people
[1:52:01] through there. So um that was good. Uh SRO's were actively involved in
[1:52:07] everybody's uh grad activities leading parades. Uh we were in the parade and
[1:52:12] then uh we also ran the ricochet. Uh we they set up their grade five field
[1:52:17] trip and we set up a little station there where the kids come through our
[1:52:21] station as well. So those were kind of highlights. Um other than that you'll
[1:52:25] see all the consultations. Those are the other things that I didn't really
[1:52:28] highlight. So, if you have any questions about those, but we're
[1:52:33] actively involved in a lot of different communities and uh community uh groups
[1:52:39] and continue to be that way. I'll go down to resources and give you kind of
[1:52:44] update on where we are for resourcing wise. Um so, that's the on the
[1:52:50] provincial side. We had one vacancy that is filled. It is here. This is our
[1:52:56] newest member, Garand Dolly. Um, so you can come up now.
[1:53:04] So you've been here how long? >> A month.
[1:53:06] » A month. So he's been here a month. Uh, yeah.
[1:53:11] » Everybody. >> I am constable Dollywal. I am from
[1:53:14] Calgary. Um, the graduate of Depo about eight weeks now and been seven weeksish
[1:53:20] and then been here for about four or five weeks now. And it's been really
[1:53:23] good. Thanks so much.
[1:53:29] » Thank you. So that uh position is now filled. So we are still uh two positions
[1:53:35] short overall, but that's not bad. We have another recruit coming in
[1:53:39] September. So that actually means we've got three recruits in the last six
[1:53:41] months, which we haven't had that for a while. So we're getting we're getting
[1:53:46] filled. It'll be nice because we were a little skinny over the winter and it
[1:53:50] gets it drags on the members just having to adjust shifts and work with the
[1:53:54] shortages. So, yeah, we're looking forward to that. And youth always brings
[1:53:58] youth, I call it youth, new members always bring good energy to the office
[1:54:02] because they're excited and everything's new and fun. So, that's good. Um,
[1:54:09] other than that, we have one vacant, your sports uh positions are filled. We
[1:54:14] have one vacant sport position, but we're interviewing on that in the next
[1:54:17] uh two, it's an ME position the next two days, so we'll be full. So, staffing
[1:54:20] wise, we're actually come September, we're going to look really good.
[1:54:25] And then stats. These stats are always kind of hard to
[1:54:29] read. Um but overall we are down our person's
[1:54:35] crime is down about 20%. Um when you look so the stats that are
[1:54:39] included in that in that is just April to June and it compares just the three
[1:54:43] months over the last five years. But when I compare where we're at this year
[1:54:47] from last year, we're down on persons crime by about 20%. Um vehicle thefts
[1:54:51] are down about 40%. The only thing we've seen a little bit of an increase in is
[1:54:55] our break in enters and that's we've July saw a big uptick in oil field uh
[1:55:01] some oil field crime. So uh we had eight different B& oil field sites and Edson
[1:55:10] it's actually seeing an even bigger uptick. So it's a crew that's working
[1:55:13] that far west uh between us and Edson country. So um yeah we're working
[1:55:21] actively on that. We have some suspects and some proactive investigations that
[1:55:25] are underway by our GI team that hopefully I'll have some pictures and
[1:55:28] show you some results in three months. So, but uh right now ours is only up 2%
[1:55:34] but July we saw a big increase in July. So, uh there's a crew that's working and
[1:55:41] making good money selling copper. That's what I got. Any questions?
[1:55:51] Thank you, chair. So, my kid's friend just uh yesterday his bank account was
[1:55:57] cleaned out. You know, one of those where it's just gone. Um do you guys
[1:56:01] take care of that or is it worth bringing that up to the RCP when that
[1:56:04] sort of fraud happens or it's worth reporting it? Uh the success rate on uh
[1:56:13] having any sort of end result to that is not good. uh because that money when you
[1:56:19] track it, it will flip into it disappears pretty quick,
[1:56:23] » right? But it's worth reporting though anyways
[1:56:25] » because we need to track it and the Canada fraud center should make sure you
[1:56:28] call it into that too because it depends on how there's different schemes all the
[1:56:33] time and we just need to track it. But it is worth reporting it.
[1:56:36] » Would that be a stat a statistic that you guys would also keep in these
[1:56:40] reports do you think? Or >> it would be it would show up as the
[1:56:43] fraud. >> Okay.
[1:56:44] » Y just as% as fraud.
[1:56:49] All right. Any other questions or comments for Staff Sergeant? No. So
[1:56:54] again, we certainly appreciate your your effort you put into our community. Thank
[1:56:59] you for your services and thank you for your reports. Great report.
[1:57:02] » Thank you. Appreciate see you guys. >> Yeah. And welcome.
[1:57:06] We should all come and shake your hand. I think welcome you to I think we
[1:57:10] should.
[1:58:05] Uh yeah, so two great reports from our RCMP. I think we could probably break
[1:58:08] just for a minute here before we get into public input and then right after
[1:58:12] public we'll go into our TNT presentation. So councelor Gunderson,
[1:58:17] » I move to receive the Breton and RCMP detachment reports for information.
[1:58:21] » Great. Thank you for that. Any discussion? All those in favor?
[1:58:26] Carried. Any opposed? Clearly not. Okay. So, uh we're on recess. Let's go for
[1:58:31] break.
[2:13:29] All
[2:13:42] right, council. It's 11 o'clock and it's time for public input. And I would just
[2:13:45] ask if there's anybody uh in the auditorium today who would like to speak
[2:13:51] to council. If not, is there anyone calling in today? Tina,
[2:13:56] » there's no one online. So with that, I will close public input.
[2:14:06] » Open and close that quickly. >> All right.
[2:14:11] » It's 11:01.
[2:14:16] So I think that's a first.
[2:14:25] » [laughter]
[2:14:28] » to [clears throat] the name. >> That's right.
[2:14:32] » All right. So, our delegation for TNT, are they here with us yet or could we
[2:14:36] just wait a little longer? Okay. Because they're scheduled 11:15.
[2:14:41] Um, so I suppose we can just >> Are you okay?
[2:14:50] » It's fine with me. We have >> TNT comes in.
[2:14:54] » Okay. I don't imagine there'll be a lot of decision making there, but yeah, we
[2:14:56] have quorum, so we're good to go. >> Okay, we're going to go to break or do
[2:15:02] you want to go to close? Up to you guys. >> Okay.
[2:15:08] » Is that okay? >> Yeah.
[2:15:15] » Yeah, I'm good. >> Okay. Councelor Blowski, go ahead.
[2:15:20] As my as my mouth is full, I move that Brazo County Council go into enclosed
[2:15:26] for oil and gas lease policy ADIA section 30.
[2:15:33] » 15 minutes. >> Perfect. At 11:01 a.m.
[2:15:37] » Okay. Just the one item. >> That's all we got time.
[2:15:40] » Okay. If you think that's all we have time for, it might be a lot quicker than
[2:15:43] you think. >> You want to just do it for all?
[2:15:48] » Okay. I move the browser County Council go into in close session for oil and gas
[2:15:53] lease policy ADIA 30, village of Breton cost sharing agreement ADIA section 26
[2:15:59] and intermunicipal opportunity proposal ADIA S19 at 11:01 a.m.
[2:16:05] » All right, thank you. I think that'll be suffice if we go a little bit long. Um
[2:16:10] hopefully our delegation will just wait for us. We'll do our best though. Okay,
[2:16:14] any discussion? All those in favor? Carried unanimously. No opposed. All
[2:16:20] right, we'll be back in hopefully 15 minutes.
[2:29:57] We'll move into it. Uh motion to come out of close, please.
[2:30:01] » Who's there? Councelor V. Who's there? >> I make the motion to come out of close
[2:30:04] session at 11:16. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All those in
[2:30:09] favor? It's carried unanimously. 5 minute break. We'll be back in five.
[2:35:02] All right, council. I think that's five minutes uh for sake of time. Councelor
[2:35:06] Blowski is on his merry way. So, is there a motion come out of enclosed?
[2:35:12] Councelor Gunderson, you have it. I move to extend the village of Breton cost
[2:35:15] sharing agreement for one year.
[2:35:21] » I think it is any discussion. >> Yeah, I'll just abstain for voting
[2:35:24] because I wasn't in for the discussion. >> Thank you.
[2:35:28] No discussion. All those in favor? That's four. Any opposed? Nobody's
[2:35:35] calling in. Councelor Harris. All right. Motion's carried. Thank you.
[2:35:42] So, we do not have a delegation at this time.
[2:35:46] Okay, we'll go on break for five minutes. Thanks, Shane. Appreciate it.
[2:36:08] We're back on break. >> Um, so I think we can grab a snack.
[2:36:14] » Shane's leaving. He's going to call him.
[2:36:21] » One. You better drive like a beep beep. >> [laughter]
[2:36:31] » Grab a sandwich. I guess we can grab a bite. Hey, is lunch here for us?
[2:36:36] » She's here.
[2:36:51] » I suspect President
[2:46:24] Crazy.
[2:47:05] I got
[2:47:12] right now.
[3:26:34] All right, I'll call the meeting back to order again and we just have one item
[3:26:40] left. Community investment proposal
[3:26:48] and I would just ask if there's any discussion uh any questions or comments
[3:26:51] to be made around this and if not we'll just receive it.
[3:26:56] Go ahead, councelor Gunnerson.
[3:27:02] » Thank you, Chair. Floor is yours.
[3:27:06] I would not be in favor of um providing the $45,000
[3:27:11] to a private business. But that said, um Abunis has a it's called a clean energy
[3:27:18] improvement program that could help with the financing of this. And what it is is
[3:27:24] the county can develop a policy or set a bylaw. It's basically a clean
[3:27:29] energy improvement tax bylaw we would set up. And the town of Drayton Valley
[3:27:33] has one. Pincher Creek has one. Sturgeon County has one. Strathona, Calgary,
[3:27:38] Edmonton. A lot of municipalities use this as a way to help private businesses
[3:27:44] uh comply with these standards to get the HVAC up to speed and the the fire
[3:27:50] suppression systems that we're we're ones asking and wanting to make sure the
[3:27:54] stuff is here or installed correctly. Um so this is something we could do and
[3:28:00] what what that entails is that once you have this bylaw in place, you fund it.
[3:28:04] So you put $500,000 towards that that program and then a business can
[3:28:09] basically come and they borrow the money from from the county. So in this case be
[3:28:16] $45,000 and the and the repayments are made through your taxes. So once a year
[3:28:21] the taxes collect that money and that just goes forever more until the the
[3:28:26] debt is repaid. And the advantage of that is it they
[3:28:31] don't need the to to get the collateral for it. It's pretty simple to get it for
[3:28:36] and there's only so much. So it's a first come first serve. So it's just one
[3:28:40] of the ways that other municipalities are helping to helping businesses deal
[3:28:46] with these compliance issues. But um I'd be
[3:28:51] interested in hearing what other counselors think.
[3:28:55] Any
[3:29:01] other thoughts, counselors? And councelor Blowski is able to join
[3:29:06] us. >> Okay. Thank you. Councelor Blowski, do
[3:29:10] you have any thoughts on this uh proposal?
[3:29:11] » Uh not at this time. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. Thanks for joining
[3:29:14] us. Councelor Folk, you're good. Council Western
[3:29:21] Lee, do you have any uh insight?
[3:29:26] Yeah.
[3:29:32] » No, I was just going to say I mean we just confirmed with them last week as
[3:29:36] far as this time. I know they were going to the the town tomorrow and um I just
[3:29:43] said well I think it's better if you come in person with your letter and then
[3:29:46] you know I'm sure council will have some questions and we just left it that. I'm
[3:29:50] just going to say that uh I mean the biggest question is are they for profit
[3:29:55] which I think they are. Um I know their cause is uh I think it'd be welcomed in
[3:30:02] the community. They're doing a good thing.
[3:30:04] » Um they had met with uh planning and so they've got a permit to do what they're
[3:30:10] doing but uh they've got some issues with the safety codes as far as needing
[3:30:14] to upgrade their washrooms and things and that's where I think they were
[3:30:17] looking for funding. But I don't recall council ever contributing to a a profit
[3:30:24] group. I just need to say that. Um so that's all I can really really say.
[3:30:32] » Okay. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you, Lee. Okay. Um is there any motion
[3:30:37] from the floor then and we can adopt? >> Go ahead, councelor Gunderson.
[3:30:41] » So this would only be obviously not for the washrooms. it would just be for the
[3:30:45] the HVAC system to to meet Alberta building code requirements.
[3:30:51] Um, I move to refer the TNT Playhouse community investment
[3:30:58] pro proposal to administration to investigate
[3:31:02] the potential to use a clean energy improvement program bylaw
[3:31:08] to assist them with their funding. May >> you may
[3:31:12] » Thank you. uh through the chair to council. I don't think it's appropriate
[3:31:15] for staff to be doing a private business's work if they were interested.
[3:31:18] I think if we just provide them the information, they can do the backlog.
[3:31:21] I'm not at all in favor of um using staff time nor resources uh for
[3:31:26] someone's private business. >> Fair. Any other comments?
[3:31:32] Any discussion? Councelor Blosski?
[3:31:41] I'll take that as a no. Can't hear you, Shane. So,
[3:31:48] okay. So, I'm just going to go over to councelor Gunderson. Do you want to
[3:31:51] respond to that or >> I can I could um if if that doesn't fly,
[3:31:56] then we could just um have [clears throat]
[3:31:59] make a motion. I can make a motion to have uh staff look at a the potential to
[3:32:05] bring in a a clean energy improvement program bylaw. We'll leave TNT out of
[3:32:10] it. That would be more acceptable to councelor Resterland.
[3:32:20] » A motion to have staff um investigate and bring back options for a clean
[3:32:27] energy improvement program by law.
[3:32:32] I'll withdraw my first motion then please. Does anyone Is that okay with
[3:32:37] council? Motion withdrawn.
[3:32:40] Okay. The motion belongs to council. >> I move to direct administration to bring
[3:32:46] back a clean energy improvement program bylaw for council's consideration.
[3:32:59] » Okay. There will be some discussion. Councelor Folk,
[3:33:02] » I guess I guess my [clears throat] question would be to councelor
[3:33:04] Gunderson. uh just what that clean energy bylaw might look like. Um what
[3:33:11] what is the fundamental purpose of that bylaw?
[3:33:17] » When I looked online, I seen that it was endorsed by ABUS, but the the purpose is
[3:33:23] it's to anything for HVAC systems to help them improve so they're not using
[3:33:28] as much >> uh fossil fuels to heat their buildings
[3:33:30] and things like that. and this might fall into that where they're looking for
[3:33:34] HVAC ventilation systems to meet Alberta building and fire code requirements. So,
[3:33:39] in that case, it could work. Uh we could just mirror what Drayton Valley has as
[3:33:43] well. Um theirs only works for their residents and not for the commercial
[3:33:48] side. >> Edmonton and Calgary, they've they've
[3:33:51] incorporated that for the commercial side as well. Um Pincher Creek, I looked
[3:33:55] at theirs, it's also commercial. Um, but on the website it it stated that they've
[3:34:00] already done as much up to intake as they can. Like their budget is they're
[3:34:04] at their max limit for what they're doing. So, it's on a first come first-
[3:34:08] serve basis. So, but yeah, I would just be curious to see what one would look
[3:34:13] like. Um, I I looked on RMA. I didn't see that it was even a thing on theirs,
[3:34:19] but but ABUNE, it definitely is. So,
[3:34:27] All right. So, the motion was to bring back a bylaw. Was that what it was? Or
[3:34:31] » for consideration? >> For consideration. Okay. It's a bit
[3:34:35] ahead for me. Uh, councelor Blowski, do you have any discussion on this motion?
[3:34:43] » I think we may have lost >> something to look at, but
[3:34:47] yeah. The the only problem that I see with this in terms of collecting taxes
[3:34:53] is isn't this building going to be in the town? And I know this bylaw wouldn't
[3:34:59] be specific to that, but if >> Yeah, something to consider.
[3:35:04] » Oh, can I? >> Yeah, you may.
[3:35:05] » Uh, the building is in Popular Ridge. It's the old home hardware store if you
[3:35:10] know where that location is, but it is in the browser county. Um,
[3:35:14] » okay. Yeah, >> there'd be there'd be no skin off of our
[3:35:16] nose. Like I said, if we had the bylaw in place, from what I understand, um if
[3:35:20] the money was borrowed for an HVAC system, it gets paid back through your
[3:35:24] taxes. And if you don't pay, well, then it would go up for for a land or
[3:35:28] property tax auction. >> So, we would we would always get our
[3:35:31] money back.
[3:35:37] » All right. Very interesting. All right. Uh councelor Voke, go ahead.
[3:35:42] Uh [clears throat] I have to um just mention that I do
[3:35:47] believe bringing back a bylaw at this point is maybe a little bit ahead of the
[3:35:50] game. I'd like to see more information on that uh principle uh before before we
[3:35:57] have administration come to the point where we're writing a bylaw. So that's
[3:36:01] just my my thoughts on that.
[3:36:05] » Yeah, I'm in the [clears throat] same space.
[3:36:08] Excuse me. All right. Well, uh, if there's no more discussion, I'll call
[3:36:13] the question. Uh, all those in favor?
[3:36:19] Councelor Gunderson, Councelor Weslin in favor?
[3:36:24] Um, all those opposed? >> I'm in favor if you can hear me.
[3:36:27] » Yeah. Okay, I hear you. I was just going to ask you last.
[3:36:30] Okay. Councelor Blosski's in favor. Those opposed? Councelor V and myself.
[3:36:35] All right. Motion's carried. Very good. Thank you.
[3:36:41] Okay. So, now we just have to go back into close session. So, only two items
[3:36:44] remain. So, council Westerland, go ahead.
[3:36:47] » Just confirming items uh 16 A and C. Correct.
[3:36:51] » Yes. >> Okay. I move to go in close session for
[3:36:53] item 16A, oil and gas lease policy ATIA section 30 and 16 C intermunicipal
[3:37:01] opportunity proposal ATIA section 19. >> All right. Thank you. Any discussion?
[3:37:08] All those in favor? Any opposed?
[3:37:13] Councelor Bowski, how do you vote? Thank you. Carried. We are in close
[3:37:18] session.
[4:14:19] All right, council take a motion to come out of close, please.
[4:14:23] » Council vote. >> I make the motion to come out of close
[4:14:26] session at 1:00. >> I move it. Move it. Move it. Move it.
[4:19:29] All right, council. It's 105. Our break is over. Is there any direction coming
[4:19:33] out of enclosed? There is.
[4:19:40] » Councelor Gunnerson, go ahead. I move that council directs administr
[4:19:43] administration to compile additional costing details on the joint opportunity
[4:19:48] with the town of Drton Valley for the consideration during the 2027 interim
[4:19:53] budget discussions. Okay, any discussion?
[4:19:58] All those in favor? That's all of us. That's unanimous. So
[4:20:04] that's carried. No counselor blowski on phone and nobody
[4:20:08] else. All right. Councelor vote. Go ahead.
[4:20:12] » I move the council adopts the updated PD19 oil and gas lease policy, including
[4:20:17] the confidential rate structure as presented in close session.
[4:20:22] » Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor?
[4:20:27] Carried unanimously. Thank you. That is finished. One motion
[4:20:31] remains. >> I move to adjourn the meeting.
[4:20:34] » Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor?
[4:20:39] Motion carried.