[0:30] Okay, it's 2 o'clock, we're online. We'll call the meeting order at 2 o'clock. And before we get to the agenda, just 2 quick announcements. We do have a birthday boy here. Councilor McDuff, happy birthday sir.

[0:47] So, it was last Friday, and I believe you're the youngest year ever going to be, is what you've told me several times.

[1:00] So happy birthday and just for one listening and for our member in the gallery it's

[1:10] September 3rd we are having our inaugural homecoming celebration event so if you have

[1:16] the opportunity, grab a ticket 20 dollars and come on down and see Nate Haller I believe

[1:22] It's gates open at 530 and the concert starts at 7.

[1:27] So if you haven't had the chance yet,

[1:29] go online to Everbright, I believe.

[1:32] Evenbright.

[1:33] Everbright.

[1:35] Eventbrate.

[1:36] Eventbrate.

[1:38] No.

[1:39] Not the lifebrate.

[1:40] So yeah, so it's going to be a great time

[1:42] and a great time for us to celebrate our students returning

[1:46] to town for school and our first time students coming

[1:49] into our town.

[1:50] Look for it to be in there and look for it to see in everyone there with that

[1:54] We have the agenda. Is there any additions to the agenda?

[2:00] See in no additions? Can I have somebody motion to accept the agenda?

[2:05] Council clerk

[2:07] I'm moved that the agenda be approved is presented

[2:11] Perfect. Thank you. We will move on. Oh, I guess we need the motion

[2:16] It's been a while. It's been a while, so I'll then pay for it to accept the agenda

[2:20] Well, both seem not carried, well, it's been a long summer apparently, and when we want

[2:27] to delegations, 4.1 stars annual update, and I'll turn it over to administration.

[2:37] Thank you, Mayor Snow.

[2:37] So our first delegation today is Jackie Seely from Stars Air ambulance.

[2:42] The Stars plays a vital role in providing critical care and emergency medical transport

[2:46] services across Alberta serving residents in rural and remote communities when minutes

[2:50] matters most. Today's delegation will share information regarding their services, accomplishments,

[2:55] and ongoing impact within our region and across the province.

[3:21] Can you hear us, Jackie?

[3:34] Thank you, might be on mute.

[3:44] Just give us a little help. Try now.

[3:53] Hello?

[3:54] Can you hear anything? We got you now.

[4:09] Jackie, it seems the screen is frozen if you can hear us.

[4:11] Are

[4:34] we did you just send her a message?

[5:25] There you are.

[5:27] Hello.

[5:27] Can you hear me now?

[5:29] We can hear you.

[5:31] Excellent.

[5:32] Thank you for joining us today.

[5:34] You're very welcome.

[5:36] I'm going to turn up my speakers so I can hear you a little bit better.

[5:40] There we go.

[5:44] Right.

[5:45] Are you ready for me?

[5:47] Here we are.

[5:49] We'll turn it over to you.

[5:50] All right, excellent.

[5:53] Okay, so thank you for the opportunity to join you remotely.

[5:56] I was already out in the town of, or in the city of Chester, Mayer this morning,

[6:01] and back in my hometown of Basana, where I worked fully remotely for stars and travel all

[6:08] over Alberta visiting municipalities.

[6:10] So much like you, I know what is like to live in a very rural area and count on stars

[6:16] for life-saving service.

[6:19] So, as you're going to be went to here today,

[6:24] we'll get a book on what match for Frischer, okay?

[6:33] Jackie, you're breaking up again.

[7:14] A good idea.

[7:46] We could sing happy birthday, what will we wait?

[7:56] I think Shannon just won't hear it.

[8:01] It wasn't post as a question.

[8:03] let's see.

[8:17] Okay,

[8:22] it's like it froze again.

[8:37] Are you there?

[9:01] I'll be the best way to go.

[9:07] Hello. Hey.

[9:11] Got your low knowledge.

[9:15] Sometimes rural internet is challenging.

[9:19] Well, we've turned off our cameras, so hopefully that helps with any broadband issues.

[9:24] Yes, okay. I turned mine off as well.

[9:27] thinking of it. So with that, I will try and share the presentation here.

[9:43] They will see a helicopter on the screen now.

[9:47] Nothing yet did

[10:13] we lose or again?

[10:17] Are you still there, Jackie?

[10:19] It might be easier for us to put the presentation on this.

[10:22] That's what I was thinking too. Yeah, but I think we lost her.

[10:28] But she comes back. We'll suggest that.

[10:56] Do you want to maybe message that to her when she jumps on?

[11:02] So she doesn't go straight into trying.

[11:24] Jackie, we see her names back up there.

[11:27] We can do the presentation from our side.

[11:30] The slideshow if you just want to talk through it.

[11:33] All right, okay sounds good.

[11:36] So hopefully I heard my intro, okay?

[11:40] We got most of it, I think.

[11:42] All right, yes, okay.

[11:44] So just to kind of recap some of information

[11:47] We may have shared with you before, but last year started celebrated 40 years of our lifesaving mission.

[11:56] And as a charitable organization, we have flown over 66,000 missions since the very beginning.

[12:03] And, and no cost to the patient remarkably, after all of this time.

[12:09] Our foundred stars believe that no matter who you are or where you are, you deserve the access to critical care when you need it most.

[12:19] To the next slide is our CEO Dr. John Fro, a former chief medical director at stars since 2012,

[12:29] he took the helmet stars in January 2025, and is very much a critical care expert like our founder Dr. Val.

[12:38] Next slide, please.

[12:40] Sadly, Dr. Powell did pass away at the end of April 2025.

[12:47] His fashion first stars are for a helicopter,

[12:50] their ambulance service started many years ago,

[12:55] and it happened when a woman from a rural community

[13:01] who was pregnant, she died from blood loss after giving birth.

[13:05] And she, because she could not make it to the care that she needed in time, and so for Dr. Powell and his other colleagues at Foot Hills emergency,

[13:15] they said something has to be done. The death rate was very high in the 70s and 80s.

[13:20] And so they rolled up their sleeves to get stars off the ground. Next slide, please.

[13:27] And so on December 1st of 1985, our first mission was flown to left-bridge Elbert, our first mission ever,

[13:35] for critically ill newborn Kelly Walton.

[13:37] So this photo shows Kelly with her husband and kids, and she has a business down in left-bridge,

[13:45] and it's something to reflect on the ripple effect of life saved and the positive impact that has on a community.

[13:55] down on the bottom right you can see a helicopter with the lions logo on it and some of you

[14:01] made all this already but originally we were lions there ambulance and that's because that's where some

[14:09] initial funding came from lions of Alberta to help us lease a helicopter and in back in those days we even had

[14:18] volunteer pilots and nurses. So things have sure come a long way from one base and

[14:23] to now serving Western Canada. In the middle, you can see that the helicopter was painted red and that's when

[14:31] made became stars, shock trauma air rescue service. That was our BK117 helicopter that served as well for 37 years.

[14:43] And then, in 2021, we began facing in the H145 helicopter, which you can see on the top right, and so it's

[14:51] the newer version of the DK117 and similar in size and weight and just two feet longer in the tail.

[15:00] Fives that operate from our six basis in Western Canada. So three in Alberta, Calgary, Edmonton, and Grand Prix. Two in Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, and Regina. And then one in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

[15:15] So wherever you have not only area residents supported where they live, but wherever they may travel across Western Canada. Next slide, please.

[15:30] We do work with multiple partners in the Chancellor Bible, first and foremost, your fire department for, you know, they help with the safe landing at the helicopter, especially out in, you know, out in your very rural areas, we're landing either on the highway or in the field and then of course a number of missions to your local hospital.

[15:52] But everything is made possible and giving the patient the best chance by working with all of our partners, whether it be police or CMP, search and rescue, ground ambulance or even Alberta Health Services, X-wing,

[16:09] so people were given a much better chance after SARS was off the ground.

[16:17] We do have the night vision goggle capability, and with more than half of our calls being at night, this is essential.

[16:25] Next slide, please.

[16:28] The next slide shows the different types of missions that we fly for.

[16:32] Cardiac is number one compared to what we showed you last year.

[16:36] And then vehicle incidents is 18% so still a lot of highway and railroad collisions and accidents.

[16:45] And then all of the other critical ill and injured type of missions fall into these other categories.

[16:52] So, of course, we only fly for critical patients.

[16:58] The next slide shows a five-year mission overview within the County of Burmellian River.

[17:04] As you've been to the...

[17:15] We might have lost you again there, Jackie.

[17:48] Just still on the Zoom link?

[18:13] My goodness, I've never had this much trouble with the internet.

[18:18] But now we are on the five-year mission overview slide and you may or may not have heard me say that they're within the last five years since 2021 to the end of 25 that have been 70 missions flowed throughout the county of Burmellian River.

[18:34] And so that's an average of about 6, apart from 14 missions a year, and then we've had 6 so far

[18:42] in 2020, 6, up to August 7. I also included the Lloyd Minister, Minister, hospital, critical

[18:52] transfers, because again, similar to Romanian hospital patients are brought in by ground and

[18:59] they're taken by stars. So just because it's most important for the patient to be stabilized

[19:09] in a rural hospital first. So then on a left-hand side, we have a chart there that shows,

[19:15] you know, a visual, basically, of all the mission locations that are on those blue dots.

[19:21] And just to speak to what I said mentioned earlier is that vehicle instance,

[19:26] our second type of mission that we fly for, well you can see right along the highway there

[19:31] that there's a number of missions and so that includes over the last five years there.

[19:39] Next slide shows how stars is funded. This has changed and will be changing again soon.

[19:46] Unfortunately, I didn't receive our most recent financial slide in time to before I sent this

[19:53] presentation. So previously we're reported to you that we required 34.2 million to operate

[20:02] 3D data. Well then that took 36.6 million to operate 3.0 million per base.

[20:15] This is

[20:16] you. Next year we'll show that it is not going to be costing 12.8 million per base to operate.

[20:24] So we are heavily in the butt.

[21:05] Jackie, I don't know if you can hear us, but we lost you again.

[21:20] Well, I'm back again.

[21:23] Are you there? We are here.

[21:29] Can you hear us? Hello. Hello. Can you hear us?

[21:37] Hello.

[21:40] Hello, I'm back again. We're getting closer to the end, so hopefully we can hang in there.

[21:47] Okay, sounds good.

[21:49] Well, I was just saying that our costs have changed actually since this financial slide, we do have a new one coming out.

[21:56] So this shows 36.6 million to operate in Alberta. That has changed from 12.2 million per base up to 12.8 million.

[22:05] So I believe that'll be over 38 million men to operate.

[22:09] We still receive the same amount in government funding from Alberta Health Services.

[22:14] It's block funding under our current agreement.

[22:17] So 15 million per year regardless of the number of missions that we fly.

[22:22] And so that provides a big chunk of sustainability for us,

[22:25] still there we must

[22:31] Over 10 million coming from the start of lottery. And after that, we have donations from corporate business and individual donations.

[22:41] Community driven fundraisers, like their million lines, glove that put on the golf tournament this year. We greatly appreciate that.

[22:48] And then our municipal initiative that we have over 95% of Alberta municipalities has part

[22:57] up.

[22:58] So if you can flip forward to the map of Alberta and Northeast BC, you can see the different

[23:05] levels of support across the province.

[23:07] So Alberta municipalities recognize stars as an essential service that is an extension

[23:13] to their emergency services. And with that, over 95% in a life-saving partnership with us.

[23:22] So I'll show the different levels. Some levels that are shown on the map in the light gray

[23:27] are under the $2 per capita. And then we have our regional leaders that are shown in the navy blue.

[23:34] And that is anywhere from $2 per capita up to $110 per capita in some of the very remote areas.

[23:42] really recognizing that we are a lifeline for their community.

[23:47] Our provincial leaders are shown in the T.L.B.

[23:51] And this is where the counties around these that are at the higher level of support.

[23:56] And have reached milestones, like a minimum of 500,000,

[24:01] where they've been honored with a local unveiling on the helicopter.

[24:05] And then, so this last year, very close to you, we recognized special areas 2, 3 and 4 with a logo on billing for reaching 500,000, so they get their logo on the helicopter at that point.

[24:20] We just finished recognizing Rocky, you count you last year.

[24:24] Well, this year we recognized Rocky part of the Mountain View County as well and later this year

[24:30] Foot Hills County, so it's really is a united effort to maintain this robust health and safety network for Rural Alberta

[24:41] Next slide please

[24:43] Virtual care now. This is a huge asset to your local hospital

[24:48] Virtual care is available through stars, and basically what it does, as you can see on the screen there,

[24:55] the medical professional is holding a device.

[24:58] We send them a link through our Good Sam program.

[25:02] They click on the link, and now our stars transport physician at the Calgary base can see the patient on the screen.

[25:10] And they can either help assess that patient, or they can help the medical professional walk through a difficult procedure

[25:17] that may not have to perform very often.

[25:21] So we have reached over 1,000 virtual care consultation calls now.

[25:26] And so that's really having an impact on the rural areas.

[25:30] When we are not either vary it with the helicopter,

[25:34] or perhaps we're on another call,

[25:38] or the patient just needs that quick that we're doing it virtually with them.

[25:42] back to another like crew

[25:50] again, we do have a class crew and so every year they go to a annual

[25:58] air medical transport conference where there's an international.

[26:08] We lost here again in

[26:09] there, Jackie.

[26:49] We'll see you right? No. Let's leave.

[27:02] We're all those old phone commercials. Can

[27:04] hear me now?

[27:06] It wasn't the answer good.

[27:28] Jackie, can you hear us?

[27:31] Yes, I can hear you loud and clear, so that's good.

[27:34] Just about done here.

[27:36] So basically, what I wanted to share about our air medical crew is in the 24 years that we've been competing.

[27:41] We've always been within the top three.

[27:44] And nine of those years, we have been in first place.

[27:48] And we've been holding that record for the last couple of years, first place.

[27:51] So, very proud of what the crew can do, but if you decide to support at some point, this is what you're supporting, is the fact that when we arrive or when we are attending the virtual care through your hospital, is that you're getting world-class critical care right in the most rural parts of Alberta.

[28:11] So we appreciate your consideration, eventually, on partnering with SARS, basically I wanted to hop on this call to bring you an annual update to keep you well informed on what's happening at stars.

[28:25] If we can move to the last slide,

[28:30] SARS is your best hope in a worst case scenario, and we're proud to serve you for over 40 years now at no cost to the patient.

[28:38] We do have a very blended funding model that we rely on to help keep us in the air.

[28:45] And we are available 24-7, so you are served also from two star spaces, Edmonton and Saskatoon.

[28:53] Only a couple of calls I would ask a tune that I looked up for you guys.

[28:58] And we were born out of necessity to serve you.

[29:02] So I would like to save every day and partnerships make it possible.

[29:05] We're thankful that Berlin Alliance held their fundraiser and has costs increased.

[29:12] We will continue to advocate and try and get more municipalities on board.

[29:18] I understand that our letter came a little bit later in February, so we're not eligible to apply for funding right now, but I thought it would.

[29:33] We lost you again, Jackie.

[30:18] Hello,

[30:23] it looks like a glitched out right at the end, unable to catch the end of the presentation.

[30:29] We lost your mid-sentence, they're just at the end, so, well.

[30:36] All right, so I was just explaining our gratitude for a million

[30:40] legions, for part of Main Line's Club, for running their fundraiser for stars, and just

[30:46] mentioned that as costs increase, for us with going from 12.2 million per base to 12.8 million

[30:53] per base, we will continue to try and continue building our full regional partnerships.

[31:03] I think

[31:12] we lost you again,

[31:20] I think that's where we'll get her back and just say thank

[31:55] you.

[32:03] Oh my goodness, hopefully you heard the end of that.

[32:06] I think we got the gist of it, Jackie, and we'll probably, I think we'll probably hold any comments or questions.

[32:14] And if we have questions as a council will email them, just in case we keep going in an

[32:20] out here.

[32:22] What?

[32:22] Yes.

[32:22] I absolutely be open to answering any questions that you have.

[32:27] I'm very interested in your thoughts and opinions around it.

[32:32] And hopefully next year I can attend in person while I'm visiting the county of

[32:37] Berlin River.

[32:38] We appreciate your time today and thank you for your presentation.

[32:42] All right, thank you very much, have a great day.

[32:45] Use well.

[32:46] Bye-bye.

[32:54] Okay, we'll move on to 4.2, our next delegation

[32:57] I'll turn it over to administration.

[33:11] Thank you, Mayor Snow.

[33:12] So we are pleased to welcome Chad Holman, Vice President

[33:15] from Jenny Burn and Associates.

[33:16] They're firm brings extensive experience

[33:18] in government relations, strategic communications,

[33:21] stakeholder engagement, and public affairs across Canada.

[33:24] They are closed session delegation.

[33:25] We'll provide an overview of their services

[33:27] and discuss opportunities to support advocacy efforts and advanced municipal priorities

[33:31] through strategic government relations and stakeholder engagement.

[33:36] Thank you, and thank you, Chad, for joining us today, and we'll just get a motion to go in

[33:42] camera. We're one of the counselors like to make motion.

[33:48] All in favor? Okay, we will take

[33:52] in camera break here. So we'll last the gallery. Larry, thank you.

[34:12] We are back into session.

[34:15] Thank you for your patience. Everyone that was waiting while we're in close session.

[34:19] We will move on to five business arising from prior meetings, 5.1,

[34:25] CAO compensation policy number 26, 06. I'll turn it over to administration.

[34:32] Thank you, Mayor Snow.

[34:34] The CAO Compensation Review Policy has been developed at the direction of Council following

[34:38] the CAO Performance Evaluation Process conducted on June 23, and July 14.

[34:44] The policies intended to complement the provisions of the CAO Biola by establishing

[34:47] and clearing consistent framework for the review of CAO Compensation.

[34:52] The budget impacts associated with this policy will be aligned with the outcomes of

[34:55] the CAO Compensation Review Process, compensation adjustments approved by Council would

[35:00] incorporated into the annual operating budget. And the CAO by law requires that the annual performance

[35:04] review be conducted on a before June 30th annually, leaving the necessary time for administration

[35:09] to make the necessary adjustments. So it's a very short and sweet policy. There wasn't a ton

[35:15] to put in there given the direction of council. And so I would welcome any questions or any additions

[35:21] or amendments to the policy as you see fit. I'll turn it over to council for any questions.

[35:30] Seeing none, and I know we have lots of discussions about this already, so if there's no questions,

[35:38] can we get somebody to move to bring it this September 15th, Deputy Mayor Martin?

[35:45] Sure, I moved out the committee of a whole direct administration to bring the chief administration

[35:50] administrative officer compensation review policy to the September 15th, 2026 council meeting for approval as per Senate.

[35:58] All in favour?

[36:00] Opposed?

[36:01] Seeing none, carry.

[36:02] Thank you.

[36:04] Six new business.

[36:05] 6.127 corporate service policy,

[36:09] resending report.

[36:10] And again, I'll turn over to administration.

[36:16] Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

[36:18] My apologies.

[36:19] It's the 2026 resending report.

[36:22] We've been working on 2027, but I have the wrong hearing.

[36:26] Thank you.

[36:27] The recommendation before you today is to receive this report as information.

[36:31] and that we would bring forward to a future council meeting for decision.

[36:36] Administrations reviewing the town's governance documents.

[36:39] The town's governance model includes a variety of bylaws, policies, and directives.

[36:44] So bylaws are a formal legal enforceable law approved by council, often includes fines

[36:50] and penalties and does impact the public.

[36:53] Policies are more public facing standards and rules that are approved by council and that

[36:58] do impact council or the public.

[37:00] So we've got some examples there, and then a directive is approved by the CAO, and that's really an internal rule, or a guideline on how staff would perform any work in accordance with a policy or a by-law.

[37:16] So some examples there is we have a directive on pay codes, so a list of all the pay codes that staff use, and things like that that are more internal in nature.

[37:26] we did a review

[37:30] Policies that were previously reviewed by Council, some were found to be redundant, outdated, or non-longer required.

[37:38] And as a good practice, I'll policy should be reviewed every three years.

[37:43] So we are proposing that the following policies be rescinded.

[37:48] Hours of work policy, that administration has created a new personnel handbook, which is an internal directive because it impacts only internal staff.

[37:58] And so that would encompass the hours of work policy.

[38:02] You're going to see that trend on most of these policies

[38:04] or just being incorporated into the new personnel handbook.

[38:07] So the earned time off policy, recognize leave policy,

[38:11] health and wellness policy,

[38:13] annual recognition and service awards policy,

[38:15] the organizational hiring and structure policy,

[38:19] temporary pay policy,

[38:21] LAPP policy for the pension plan,

[38:23] as well as the fire department member policy.

[38:26] So those are all included in our new personnel handbook.

[38:30] Promotional attire policy we're proposing to be rescinded because it's just no longer required.

[38:34] It's more of an internal procedure on how we handle if departments are using items out of the town's promotional attire and how it's handled financially in the background.

[38:48] Communication plan, community response policy and social networking policy.

[38:52] We're proposing those to be rescinded as well because we have a new communications policy that was approved by Council in December of 2025.

[39:02] And lastly, we're proposing that the building access and security of town buildings policy be rescinded.

[39:07] This policy is pretty procedural in nature, and it really just isn't required to be a Council policy to state that members of administration would be giving keys to access the town buildings.

[39:20] So following the reasoning of the above policies, if approved by Council, that leaves us three

[39:25] corporate services policies that remain outstanding for us to complete a review and update,

[39:31] they're not listed in the table because we want to make sure that we retain those policies

[39:34] and keep them in our policy library.

[39:37] So that's our tangible capital assets policy, purchasing policy, and disposal assets policy.

[39:42] So following review and update of those policies, they will be brought forward to Council.

[39:46] We just haven't had a chance to review and update those ones either.

[39:50] And any of the other policies that Council has reviewed and approved recently will remain

[39:55] in our books.

[39:56] We just didn't list every single policy, but these are all the ones that we're proposing to

[40:00] recent.

[40:01] So I now turn it back to Council for any questions.

[40:05] Hello, Council for questions.

[40:08] Deputy Mayor Martin.

[40:10] Just want to start off with the same thanks for all the hard work looking into all these policies

[40:15] I'm sure there's pages more yet to come, unfortunately.

[40:21] Would it be possible in the end to see the handbook, I know it's in the midst of creating

[40:24] or whatever, just so that it's just a good refresher to the foreword.

[40:32] Yes, we can't do that.

[40:35] I'm just the note on the handbook as well, so we did talk about the tip of the last

[40:37] council meeting, but our office will be closed tomorrow afternoon from noon until 430 as

[40:44] we'll be presenting the personnel handbook to staff, so they've already had the communication

[40:48] piece that it is coming out, but all members of the ELT will be presenting a four and a half hour.

[40:53] Over view of what the personnel had, but it looks like we're going to be answering all of the questions,

[40:58] with staff from not only the town hall, but our community services department,

[41:03] our public works and planning and infrastructure departments.

[41:06] I'm just making sure that everybody's getting the clear consistent message,

[41:08] and everybody will get a bound copy of that personnel handbook.

[41:11] It'll also be utilized for new hires, so when people are coming into the organization,

[41:15] that they know exactly what the expectations are,

[41:18] what their entitlements are, and then as we need to amend that from time to time that will make

[41:22] those necessary revisions, we've also had it reviewed by legal to ensure that we are

[41:26] meeting all of our statutory and legislative requirements, so it does need all of those things

[41:30] as well.

[41:31] So we're pretty excited to roll this out to staff, I think it'll assist just in consistency and

[41:36] delivery of information, and then as we need to make adjustments to it, we can, and it's

[41:40] just more clear for the members that work for the town of Relyon.

[41:44] I think the handbooks are great, addition, it gives that clear, concise communication, everyone

[41:51] has the same information, so I think that's great, step forward administration.

[41:56] Thank you.

[41:57] Councillor Snell Grove?

[41:59] Yeah, I concur with Deputy Mayor Martin's point that can we see the hand, but but also even

[42:06] if we agree with when I do agree with the intention of this policy recent and moving

[42:10] to end, okay, I think it'd be beneficial at town, but will it be a consistent touch point

[42:15] for council to see any updates like once every three years, like a policy update, to make

[42:19] sure that there's not changes that we may not have agreed with, because we don't no longer

[42:24] actually have an act of looking to it.

[42:31] Yes, so as the, like, as the handbook would be updated, I would brief council on any updates

[42:35] that are made to it.

[42:36] Yeah, it's going to be a living document, right?

[42:38] Like, we'll review it annually to make sure that it's still aligning with the organizational needs.

[42:41] If we find that after, you know, we introduce it tomorrow, we use it for a year that changes are required,

[42:47] then we'll make those necessary changes and then we would brief counsel on that as well.

[42:51] It's not a document that would be available to the public.

[42:55] It's obviously confidential in nature due to the personnel stuff that is in there,

[42:59] but we will share it with counsel.

[43:03] Any other questions?

[43:07] Somebody like to motion to bring a forward to September 15th meeting,

[43:11] or to a future meeting for decision.

[43:15] Deputy Mayor Martin, I'm going to have the committee of the whole receive the corporate

[43:20] services policy rescinding report is information and administration shall bring the

[43:25] item forward to a future meeting for decision.

[43:29] All in favor,

[43:40] we're looking for a friendly amendment or that was just, that was a friendly

[43:43] joke.

[43:44] Friendly amendment.

[43:45] Friendly amendment.

[43:47] All right.

[43:47] I asked all in favor.

[43:50] Thank you.

[43:51] Opposed?

[43:51] See, and none carried.

[43:59] 6.2.

[44:01] 27 costs live in allowance.

[44:04] I'll turn it over to administration.

[44:06] Thank you.

[44:07] Before you today is a recommendation on the 2027 cost of living or cola allowance.

[44:13] This report is to provide council with the cost of living information and to obtain

[44:17] direction from council on what the cost of living would be for 2027's operating budget for municipal staff.

[44:25] Approval in September of 2026 will allow us to accurately incorporate the salary expectations into our draft operating budget.

[44:34] Currently, there is no standard for determining the cost of living allowance for employees at the town of Remy that we were able to find.

[44:41] Administration reviewed the Government of Alberta's Economic Dashboard Alberta's Consumer Price Index,

[44:48] as that specific to our province, and we also did review the Bank of Canada's projections for the future years,

[44:55] which we are going to be budgeting for.

[44:57] So the data is...

[45:00] And as of June of 2026, Alberta's CPI was 3.4% increase from last year to this year, and Alberta showed an increase of 2.7% year to date for 2026 and overall Canada was 2.6.

[45:16] The Bank of Canada is projecting inflation to East Lightly in 2027 to be 2%.

[45:23] Administration is proposing to average the Alberta CPI of 2.7%.

[45:28] And the Bank of Canada's 2027 projection of 2%.

[45:32] And provide town of Emileen staff with 2.35% cost of living for the 2027 operating budget.

[45:40] Moving forward Administration is proposing the use of the June values

[45:44] when the end to use the average of the Alberta CPI and the Bank of Canada's projection each year

[45:49] when determining cost of living. It's very important that we have consistency, especially as

[45:54] we're working through our budgets every year. I now turn it back to council for any questions.

[46:00] Can you sum it up?

[46:03] This is always a very good result. She and I'm glad you're probably

[46:09] getting something that's going to be more consistent for the employees.

[46:13] When I read the more consistent for the employees, when I read this, we had an increase from

[46:24] last year, and I can't expand my screen of a 3.4 percent.

[46:35] What kind of an increase did they get last year of the call-up?

[46:42] Last year included in the budget was 2.5 percent, and that was not a formal motion outside

[46:50] from Council, which is the process we're looking to incorporate this year.

[46:54] So where was that number right that?

[46:57] That number was arrived at in September of 2025.

[47:05] Canada's was listed at 2.4% and in general our budget we try to for when

[47:11] budgeting future years do a 2.5% just to have our multi-year budget for items

[47:16] that we don't have firm data on.

[47:19] And so we use 2.5 percent.

[47:22] It wasn't based out of any specific formula like this last year.

[47:27] Unfortunately, the finance management team just

[47:29] started in August and September.

[47:31] So we didn't have a lot of time to get it put together

[47:34] and into the budget.

[47:35] My concern is that if the increase was 3. whatever percent

[47:44] And you're only giving them 2.5, they're going to fall behind,

[47:50] don't understand.

[47:53] I don't know if I'm coming from the right place, but if I was there, we know there's

[47:59] not going to be a lot of deflation, inflation might slow down.

[48:04] But if I made a hundred bucks a day last year, and I needed a hundred and three,

[48:15] I think

[48:21] What it comes to Cola can be a particularly sensitive topic, both politically and administratively.

[48:28] So we do tend to air on the side of being a bit more reserved with the proposals that we're bringing forward to Council.

[48:33] It's certainly Council's purview to make whatever decision Council would like to move forward with.

[48:38] But that was our rationale for bringing that number forward.

[48:41] No, I understand, I understand, and I'm glad you went through the process,

[48:47] and I'm happy to give, last.

[48:56] Are they overpaid?

[49:02] Councillor Snow Grove?

[49:03] I can't.

[49:04] I can't.

[49:04] You can't hear me, go.

[49:06] I thought it was a difficult question.

[49:09] Go ahead.

[49:11] So staff, similar to myself, are paid based on the 50th percentile of comparable municipalities,

[49:17] 50% of the salaries are higher and 50% are lower.

[49:21] So we're in line with the market comparables

[49:23] and also the region as a whole.

[49:25] So making sure that we're not overpaid or underpaid,

[49:28] but making sure that we are paying at a relatively

[49:31] consistent basis that we're able to attract and retain,

[49:35] which is the biggest thing is good talent

[49:37] because we don't just want anybody

[49:39] for the job we want the right people in the right jobs.

[49:43] Councillor Snowgrew. I agree with the idea of building a consistent policy so the numbers

[49:49] not surprising to anyone. We have something to go off of. And I doubt it would happen if

[49:56] the Alberta price index and the Bank of Canada rates are very wildly you might get a number

[50:05] of the surprises and it might look at some flexibility for counsel to make a decision either

[50:09] So we're not tied into our budget, but in general I think I think the idea of the policy is solid

[50:18] and the other

[50:19] Councillor Collin

[50:21] How much are a 2.35% increase affect the budget? Do you have a number on that?

[50:29] I don't handy, but I can get you one.

[50:36] Yeah, I just be interesting to see how much it goes up every year

[50:45] So to that point, if Councilor Common in all accounts will be okay with it, we would bring that number in line with our budget presentation and just align it at that time it wouldn't come back as a separate line item.

[50:57] I think that's right.

[51:01] Yeah, I think this is a good way to approach Cola instead of just kind of picking a number.

[51:09] there's some rational behind it. There's a formula. So I'm all for this.

[51:17] Any other questions?

[51:20] If not, can I get some to make motion?

[51:25] Councillor Snell Grove.

[51:27] Move that committee of whole receive the 2027 cost of living allowance,

[51:31] call up report as information on favor post none carried

[51:41] 6.3 draft patron

[51:46] kondra conduct policy i'll turn over to administration

[51:51] thank you mayor and council before you today is a draft patron conduct policy for

[51:56] information as part of our ongoing review of governance documents the town did not have a

[52:01] seek governing the conduct of customers and patrons as suspension from town facilities if required.

[52:07] The town is committed to providing a safe, welcoming and accessible public facilities and services.

[52:14] While the majority of interactions between residents and the town are respectful and productive,

[52:19] we did have a recent situation where a member of the public was banned from town properties due to safety concerns.

[52:25] It was important for administration to establish a patron call.

[52:30] It's clear expectations, ensures consistent application of the policy, and also supports staff, as well as those being suspended from facilities with some guidelines.

[52:41] The proposed policy includes that town management shall have the authority to suspend customers and patrons' access to facilities, programs and services, and when it's deemed appropriate.

[52:51] And when providing longer suspensions, the patrons shall be provided with written notice,

[52:56] the details, the reason, duration, and the affected facilities and programs,

[53:01] as well as any applicable appeal process.

[53:04] The appeals is proposed in this policy, or heard by the CAO,

[53:08] who has the option to establish an appeal review panel of management at the CAO's discretion.

[53:15] All decisions of the appeals are final and not further appealable.

[53:19] I now turn it back to Council for any questions.

[53:23] Council, is there any questions?

[53:27] Councillor Clark.

[53:29] Just I guess due to the nature to some of these, I can appreciate some confidentiality

[53:34] and all that.

[53:34] How is this communicated to staff if it individual is banned?

[53:38] And to possibly Council as well?

[53:41] procedurally we would share it. We would share it out to staff. We haven't come up with the

[53:48] exact procedure. Other experience I have at other municipalities is there would be a shared

[53:54] folder where we would just keep bands and limit it to only certain facility managers or

[54:00] those employees that would need to have access to no.

[54:04] Thank you.

[54:06] Any other questions?

[54:09] Councillor Snowler?

[54:10] This policy is specific to individual people and not groups.

[54:16] I know we've had some debates to whether who is allowed or when to grant our facilities outfall in a different policy.

[54:23] Correct.

[54:24] This is only if there is uncivil behavior by an individual in our facilities,

[54:31] which we've been very fortunate to not have to deal with very often.

[54:34] we don't want to create an issue that we don't already have in this town, and so we try

[54:39] to keep this policy pretty high level, and it's there if we need it, but we hope we

[54:43] don't.

[54:46] The other questions, I guess I just have two, I think the policy is really good, and I think

[54:53] it's something to need it.

[54:56] Is there similar policies that you guys know of for other municipalities, or we kind of breaking

[55:03] ground here?

[55:04] There are some, I likely after the recent pandemic, we saw an increase of more, the city

[55:13] legislature as a policy, Jasper, and Pentecden were two that we pulled a lot of their

[55:18] information out into this one as well.

[55:20] So you don't see them a lot, but there are, there'll be coming more common.

[55:24] I appreciate that.

[55:25] And I ask, just, because I assume that was the answer, just so public can know it's, you

[55:31] this is not a reactive measure to any current incidents that we're mentioned. This is just

[55:37] best practice and moving forward. And I guess my last question would be on the appeal process

[55:43] and I know the appeal goes through the CAO but being as these might be residents that are

[55:51] appealing wouldn't it wouldn't there be a logic to bring it to council for the appeal?

[55:58] Generally, with my experience, it is held at the administrative level.

[56:04] If the CIO feels there would be a conflict with the patron that's being suspended,

[56:10] or perhaps they just want more feedback,

[56:13] then she does have the ability to have a panel of management pulled in to hear the appeal.

[56:19] In my experience, I would accept the appeals.

[56:23] I wouldn't sit on it. I would put together an appeal board

[56:26] of manage like senior management in my previous experience and then they would give the

[56:30] direction back to me and I'd be the liaison back.

[56:35] I guess I'm just asking because in other situations of appeal within the town, often it goes

[56:43] to administration, they review it, comes to counsel for discussion and so.

[56:49] Some of these situations, which I hope we don't have to deal with, but in other municipalities,

[56:54] There are situations that you likely wouldn't want to talk very public about in some situations.

[57:00] Okay, very enough.

[57:01] Any other questions?

[57:04] Councillor Conlon.

[57:06] Just to follow up with that, I think the path, what you have down here is just fine,

[57:11] but should that individual, if anything happens in the future,

[57:15] they always have the right to appeal to Council.

[57:17] Just as anyone does for anything, is that not correct?

[57:20] If you want to bring anything to Council, you can put it on the minutes or as for a...

[57:25] I lost words, I was for a delegation.

[57:27] Delegation, yes, that's what I'm looking for.

[57:29] They could, and then it's up to probably the mayor

[57:33] and Deputy Mayor and Council, if they want to add them onto the agenda.

[57:35] So the way that I see this is perfectly fine, and there's always that option,

[57:39] should an individual than anyone, like to do that.

[57:41] That's always the option for delegation.

[57:46] If no other questions, can I get someone to make a motion?

[57:50] Can some Martin beat you to it?

[57:54] I move that the committee of the whole received the draft,

[57:57] and contact policy as information and direct administration to bring it to a future meeting

[58:01] for decision.

[58:04] All in favor, post-CNN carried 6.4 draft video surveillance in public area policy, and

[58:14] I'll turn it over to the administration.

[58:17] Thank you, Mayor and Council.

[58:19] Before you today is a draft video surveillance in public areas policy.

[58:23] This is a policy that administration was internally reviewing and developing because the town did not have a policy governing the installation operation and management of video surveillance systems.

[58:36] We currently do utilize some video surveillance systems in select public facilities and locations, mostly to protect the municipal assets and deterbandalism.

[58:45] as I'm sure most people are aware of we recently had some situations of vandalism at

[58:49] town office and some videos surveillance was handy in that situation. So municipalities are

[58:56] required to ensure that personal information collected through surveillance is managed

[59:00] appropriately and in compliance with all the provincial privacy legislation. The proposed policy

[59:07] just provides clear standards and responsibilities, requires public notifications through

[59:12] Where there is surveillance, protection of individual privacy by ensuring cameras are positioned to avoid private property and privacy exists for our patrons.

[59:23] Limiting access to the surveillance system operation and recordings, having a secure storage and retention of all of our surveillance as well as guidance that all locations and systems have to be approved by the CAO as well as installed by IT so that we can have staff putting up trail cameras.

[59:41] that are part of our proper system.

[59:45] So, administration is bringing this forward for Council's review and comments, and I turn

[59:49] it back to you for any feedback.

[59:50] We'll be able to Council. Any questions? Council Clerk.

[59:57] We'll be an example.

[1:00:01] That would be the live barn that's available in the stadium. I'm not sure if it's in the arena as well for live streaming of hockey.

[1:00:08] Okay. And I guess for a number four, reasonable expectation of privacy.

[1:00:12] I suppose as far as down the rabbit holes I went with that. But do we need to define what that is in this as well? Or is it implied?

[1:00:22] I just see that being subjective to some people.

[1:00:25] Yeah, generally the word reasonable is, with reasonable to one, may not be to the other.

[1:00:31] We can adjust that wording or define it to make it more clear.

[1:00:40] Just to touch on what Maryland just clarified there.

[1:00:43] When it comes to privacy in the workplace or at facilities privacy is extremely limited,

[1:00:48] so although we may feel that we have an inherent right to privacy,

[1:00:52] that work on our computers, all those things,

[1:00:54] Um, that doesn't necessarily exist in the workplace.

[1:00:57] So when you are here, yes, you are in your office.

[1:00:59] You're doing what you need to do, um, but at the same time,

[1:01:02] anything that you're doing on town, time or town business is the property

[1:01:06] of the town of Orleans.

[1:01:07] So we have to be just very conscious of that.

[1:01:10] Any other questions?

[1:01:13] Just had one, and that may be I didn't read it in there.

[1:01:16] But is there an, um, an expiry time for how long we keep video?

[1:01:24] copies, like digital copies, and a lot of places will say we retain the video for one year,

[1:01:32] six months, five years.

[1:01:36] We are currently working on a new record's retention by law and policy and procedure.

[1:01:41] So in this policy, we just have that it's just subject to a applicable legislation.

[1:01:45] And so if there is legislation, for example, under a piece of surf, if there's a body-war

[1:01:50] camera that would be different and sometimes that's legislated by the province. Whereas our internal

[1:01:56] legislator, our internal surveillance would be legislated under our records retention policy,

[1:02:02] which we're still in the works of finalizing. I don't believe the current, I'd have to look back,

[1:02:08] but I don't believe the current by-law for records retention for the town includes surveillance videos.

[1:02:12] Because I'd probably be nice to have some boats or valence, I think that's a fair thing

[1:02:19] that's typically as people don't want their images kept forever.

[1:02:24] No, and we made sure that this is very locked down on where it is stored in a locked secure

[1:02:30] area, and it's very limited on who can have access to it as well.

[1:02:35] Councilen, right off?

[1:02:37] Which buildings currently have surveillance besides this one?

[1:02:42] This one we are.

[1:02:44] I believe there's some in our wreck facilities.

[1:02:47] We're looking at putting some outdoor cameras in the 2027 budget.

[1:02:51] You'll see that proposed.

[1:02:53] And we're looking at putting up some cameras at other facilities,

[1:02:57] especially after the most recent events here.

[1:03:00] For town office, we're doing just internally with staff.

[1:03:04] doing a little bit of a security review and audit on what we have and where we could improve

[1:03:10] based on where we found gaps after the incident, and then we'll look at what we can do in

[1:03:16] other facilities to help protect them at the better as well.

[1:03:22] Any other questions? If not,

[1:03:25] can I have someone make a motion? Councillor Conland. How moved that committee of a whole

[1:03:30] received the draft video surveillance and public areas policy is information and directed

[1:03:34] administration to bring it back to future meeting for discussion.

[1:03:38] All in favor?

[1:03:40] Opposed, see, and none carried.

[1:03:47] 6.5, municipal collections, services, delivery options.

[1:03:51] I'll turn over to administration.

[1:04:00] I'll take that one.

[1:04:02] Thank you, Mayor Council.

[1:04:04] Yeah, let me have before you today

[1:04:05] is speaking about our way of collections, delivery services.

[1:04:11] The purpose of burying this forward today

[1:04:13] to discuss how we're delivering municipal waste collection before we commit to replacing

[1:04:18] our vehicle. As you can see in the information, I done that our waste collection vehicle is

[1:04:24] now exceeding 10 years in age about 14,000 hours and it's reaching its end of useful life.

[1:04:32] It's the only vehicle we have for providing collection services so dependability is very important

[1:04:36] of that. In addition, our waste collection contract for collection services for materials that are

[1:04:45] not collected by the town, essentially the town, as you can see in the report collects garbage,

[1:04:50] we collect from residential and commercial sector, and we have an outside contract that collects

[1:04:56] for organics and the Cardboard OCC, our board bins for commercial side, and as you may

[1:05:06] be aware of the province, to go over responsibility for the curbside blue bay connection,

[1:05:11] collection, and a fine instance, side of that. Since our contract is coming up in April,

[1:05:16] it gives us an opportunity to maybe look for some efficiencies, and to look at whether

[1:05:20] can providing collecting services internally, purchase a new vehicle and make that investment

[1:05:26] in its best option for the town. So what I wanted to discuss with Council was the idea

[1:05:32] that perhaps we put out a tender, we test the market, take a look and see what we can get back

[1:05:39] for some price in from contractor and evaluate that against our present costs and some of the

[1:05:45] we have associated with just providing collection and house with one vehicle.

[1:05:50] You know, as you may be aware of where we had that incident to a little over two years ago,

[1:05:57] where our collection truck was at a service for a while due to a fire.

[1:06:00] We're seeing a lot more items.

[1:06:03] We're not sure what they would cause of that fire was.

[1:06:05] Sometimes it could be hot embers of people are burning stuff.

[1:06:09] A lot of times batteries these days.

[1:06:10] There seems to be a lot of issue with batteries, creating fires.

[1:06:13] There's a lot of risks to associate with that.

[1:06:15] That being said, during that time, we were in a particular committee where we had one vehicle and it was other

[1:06:21] service.

[1:06:21] We ended up renting a vehicle because of their time frame involved to get that back in service.

[1:06:27] And that was significant one budget expense that we had to incur.

[1:06:31] Based on that experience, we budget it and made arrangements for existing contracts that

[1:06:37] does provide collection for the, um, for the, um, for the organics and the cardboard, um, to be

[1:06:44] available if we need them to provide resident collection on the emergency basis. So we have

[1:06:49] a little bit of, uh, kind of a memorandum of understanding with them that if we do have a problem

[1:06:53] with their truck, they can step in at a cost, obviously, but at least we can provide continuity

[1:06:57] of service. So, um, what I'm asking for here is that, um, um, councils to consider, um, given

[1:07:06] direction for administration to go. Put a tender out, get a look at some pricing, we'll

[1:07:11] come back to council with those results and take a look at that as it compares to our

[1:07:15] internal costs and then ultimately decide how we want to proceed with collection in the future.

[1:07:21] And as I mentioned the timing, but that's important to the expiry of the existing collection

[1:07:25] contract for April of next year.

[1:07:30] We'll open up for questions. Councilor McDuff?

[1:07:36] Thank you for that. My question is what do we pay for the collection of the organics, which not everybody puts out?

[1:07:49] A lot of people don't put out organics, but in what is the approximate price if our government

[1:07:58] What would it cost for a month?

[1:08:04] I'm having trouble, excuse me, I haven't trouble hearing you.

[1:08:08] Okay, that's that's strange.

[1:08:10] Did you just have to see anything?

[1:08:15] My first question is, how much is a cost

[1:08:21] per month when they're picking up the organics?

[1:08:24] And my second question is, how much would it cost if the contractor was to pick up garbage

[1:08:32] for a month if our truck would do?

[1:08:36] I don't have the monthly cost for a GANIX in front of me here at the moment.

[1:08:43] I do can tell you the arrangement we have regarding if the contractor was picking it up.

[1:08:49] It would be $1,500 a day if they were to provide collection services for waste.

[1:08:55] if they had to step in to provide that service roughly $3,000 a week

[1:09:04] because they pick up garbage three times a week for commercial right

[1:09:10] we got 15 times five days

[1:09:16] right let's go

[1:09:19] cancel calling just my missing something there if it's $500 a day but it costs

[1:09:25] $150,000 less than the truck went down for four months.

[1:09:30] That was rental fees and other costs incurred with the rental of the truck.

[1:09:37] How come we didn't just have them pick up the garbage instead of renting a truck?

[1:09:43] I, it predated my time here so I can't speak to that decision once made that way.

[1:09:50] I just want to keep in mind that we're not committing ourselves to anything here.

[1:09:53] just getting a look at some numbers and then we'll be able to compare against our numbers,

[1:09:57] which I can report. Obviously when we get due to yourselves, I don't have the details

[1:10:01] with that. In front of me, it's just really at the planning stage right now.

[1:10:09] I remember when we switched from the big dumpsters to the little cans, it was quite the

[1:10:15] community uprising. When that happened, I would say probably for the better in the long run.

[1:10:20] I guess so I just want to be aware like or I guess ensure like if we're going to look at contracting like those services have to be I think consistent going forward.

[1:10:31] I don't think we want to change the size of our waste cans for the entire community again and all that.

[1:10:36] And just to be aware of like the community collaborations, I know I missed the last council meeting where everybody is raving about the fair.

[1:10:41] But I know that there's a large waste collection service, the town provides the access

[1:10:46] ID.

[1:10:47] And so we wouldn't want to make sure we interrupt that without at least giving them a good

[1:10:51] heads up.

[1:10:52] And any other organizations that the town collaborates with in that scenario as well.

[1:10:56] So mostly just raising concerns on 100% for sourcing the code, I think the time is right.

[1:11:02] Giving the other contract renewal and all that stuff.

[1:11:05] But just making sure we're checking boxes and bringing what we know of the community forward

[1:11:08] for you as well.

[1:11:12] We'd be short of hearing that into our discussions with any contractor about how we would handle that.

[1:11:18] So, you know, we aware of that too that we do provide a lot of services and there's little nuances there.

[1:11:23] So, we're not looking, we'd want to try to do our best to kind of ensure that service delivered to the commercial and residential sector remains at the same standard that I do use to see now.

[1:11:36] I don't think it hurts to go put out a request for a proposal so we can have access to

[1:11:40] a current market rate would be for the service.

[1:11:43] The more information we have the council, the better decision we can make, whether we keep

[1:11:46] it in the House or I, I don't want to support the administration.

[1:11:49] Get an information.

[1:11:52] Thank you.

[1:11:52] Councillor Merden.

[1:11:54] I just have a comment.

[1:11:55] Have we done any consideration as to how often in the winter months the green bin or the

[1:12:02] organic business being collected by, or being used by residents. I know myself, and I know

[1:12:11] others, the green bins parked in the back, you know, they don't use it at all. So I'd

[1:12:17] like to see that consideration as well, when we're...

[1:12:22] I'll have to see that data is available. I know in a new contract we would have that

[1:12:26] of data available, vehicle CSAs are equipped with, you know, technology that can track how often

[1:12:33] they left, how often they pick up. We know that there is, um, tonnages track now in terms

[1:12:39] of how much, and we do reduce it, as you may be, where our collection, from my,

[1:12:43] because you monthly, during the winter service, but, um, my experience is set to, uh, two

[1:12:48] people are doing it in town, they expect us to be there to collect it. Um, so when some people

[1:12:54] So pretty adamant and committed to diverting your organic soil, you're long to as well.

[1:13:00] But I still say, in all of your respect, in the winter months, your organic input into those

[1:13:09] bins that's got to be reduced from cotton grass and taken up gardens and trimming edges

[1:13:16] to just house waste, right?

[1:13:18] So, you know, if we can reduce our pickup in those winter months to say cost, that's where I'm coming from.

[1:13:27] We can look at how we might want to incorporate that into a tender as an option, you know,

[1:13:32] that there is flexibility that we can pull back on that.

[1:13:35] But that's a level of service that we'd have to bring back to Council for Council to decide if that's something that they'd like us to do in terms of how we deliver service.

[1:13:47] I'm just going to touch on that and say that we have had this discussion at council before and that part of our budget review and part of our contract review will entail whether or not we do reduce that level of service once we have the numbers to be able to provide that to council and to see if it is worthwhile to continue on with multiple pickups per month or if we want to scale that back based on youths and whether that would have been a great question also that we could probably put in our survey this year that we obviously omitted.

[1:14:14] But that's certainly something that we could do a community kind of feedback and see what

[1:14:19] people would rather and then incorporate that in our budget deliberations over the next

[1:14:23] couple of months.

[1:14:24] Thank you.

[1:14:26] Any other questions?

[1:14:29] See, and none can I get somebody to make a motion?

[1:14:31] Council on my stuff.

[1:14:35] I'd like to move that the committee of the whole, we see the municipal wage collection service

[1:14:39] delivery options report as information and to direct administration to seek the proposals

[1:14:45] or alternate weight collection services.

[1:14:48] All in favor?

[1:14:50] Post and see and uncary.

[1:14:54] We will move on to 6.6, water and waste, water, utility.

[1:15:02] This item is, we've taken a look at the existing bylaw that was approved in 2020 and we've identified

[1:15:12] some areas where we would like to see some improvements in terms of how accounts are established

[1:15:18] and managed. We want to look at clarifying responsibilities. We want to look at vacant properties,

[1:15:24] water restrictions just some ways to refine and better manage how we're looking after our utility

[1:15:31] accounts and services and how we're delivering service. So what you have before you is a new draft

[1:15:38] by law that we're proposing for Council to consider and to stage I'm open any questions,

[1:15:45] Council, I assume at a time to review that. Thank you and all over up to Council for questions.

[1:15:52] It sounds so clerk.

[1:15:54] This is maybe more of a curiosity thing, but I noticed a lot of this is probably owner like

[1:15:58] singular.

[1:15:59] Is there a reason that we don't use plural, like, for example, I'm not on my water

[1:16:04] bill, but my wife is kind of thing, right?

[1:16:07] So is it a system thing or is it just one on us to that person, just curious why you don't

[1:16:16] have the ability to have more than one property owners on the, in the document.

[1:16:23] Property owner,

[1:16:27] I guess we could always change that if that was a request by council.

[1:16:35] You know, I think that's, we look at this property and I guess owner owner,

[1:16:39] so I guess this one we have looking at it.

[1:16:41] When we speak to that, we're speaking to the property.

[1:16:43] And I think that is implied.

[1:16:44] I get that, but I guess sometimes when you put two people's names in the bill, your money comes a little quicker to you sometimes in my experience.

[1:16:53] So I just mostly, like I say, curious if it was because it was owner for a reason if there's a system restriction or if it was just the way it was.

[1:17:01] No, there was no restriction on whether that needs be owner or owner or owner or owner.

[1:17:08] Any other questions?

[1:17:11] I appreciate your time and administrations, time and catching these errors and these gaps.

[1:17:18] Just always looking at our practices and making sure we're doing the best in our bylaws and policies.

[1:17:25] Thank you.

[1:17:27] If there's no other questions, can I get somebody to make a motion?

[1:17:31] Councillor Martin.

[1:17:33] I move that the committee of the whole directive administration

[1:17:35] to bring the water and waste water by the utility file onto the regular council meeting on September

[1:17:40] 15th, 2026 for first reading.

[1:17:43] All in favour?

[1:17:45] Opposed?

[1:17:46] Seeing none, carried.

[1:17:57] 6.7.

[1:17:58] Seeing railway, building facility assessment and feasibility.

[1:18:02] I'll turn it over to administration.

[1:18:06] Thank you, Mayor Council.

[1:18:08] This is another information item.

[1:18:10] This is talking about the C.M. railway building.

[1:18:15] And if a facility assessment and feasibility study,

[1:18:17] it's completed by the province.

[1:18:20] This will provide a council for information.

[1:18:23] The study evaluated the existing building and everyone's aware,

[1:18:30] there's some concerns with that and it has limited use right now and is in need of some attention

[1:18:37] as it needs to be protected from the elements.

[1:18:40] And so anyway part of this feasibility survey was to look at options

[1:18:43] from the promised perspective at that time in terms of what could be done with that facility.

[1:18:49] If you had a look at the report and I tried to summarize it just briefly here in the information sheet.

[1:18:55] The feasibility study came back and it came back with the four options essentially for what to do with that building.

[1:19:01] A talk about minimum safety and cold compliance and to allow some continued use to the main floor level.

[1:19:09] that had a cost item of about 270,000, and then it went on to a more comprehensive rehabilitation

[1:19:16] work, and about a million dollars, and it got into full rehabilitation of the whole building

[1:19:22] itself, which would be 1.8 billion. The details are in the feasibility study, both the type

[1:19:28] of what's going to be each one, and then it talked about option four that looked every placing it.

[1:19:33] And then it talked that some pricing ahead and then there for a similar size new building,

[1:19:37] at about 1.8, it talked about main floor replacement of a building about the size of the main floor

[1:19:45] at about 1.15 and perhaps a smaller building that might suit some of the activities

[1:19:50] taking place there now at about $650,000. One thing to note, there is mention and there's

[1:19:58] a little bit of an inconsistency in there that is not our document. It's a bit of somebody else

[1:20:02] talk about demolition. It did identify about 116,000 demolition costs. It's not clear where

[1:20:08] those sit within that. I don't know what it's exactly within those three but three options

[1:20:13] under four. But it also identified there are some, if you get into demolition, there's concerns

[1:20:18] with some hazardous material that would have to be addressed. I don't believe that's when

[1:20:23] cost it in here as well and it's a bit of an unknown at this stage. So, so this has been repowered

[1:20:29] for counsel, for information, and if you have any questions, I can answer

[1:20:33] a basic my knowledge of the field.

[1:20:37] A little for no, for any questions,

[1:20:41] Councillor McDuff,

[1:20:46] I can't turn your mic on, it's

[1:20:48] that's there you go.

[1:20:49] I believe there's a society being formed to look after this project.

[1:20:56] They have a copy of this report, do you know?

[1:21:01] Yes, I do.

[1:21:02] Okay, thank you.

[1:21:07] When this report was initially sent over to us, I talked to the folks that were starting that committee and they'd asked for a copy, so we shared one with them.

[1:21:18] I just, it's, it's interesting to read, I think the full document, this one says 180 or 84 pages like the full one was 120 plus, but it's interesting to see their options.

[1:21:33] I know and speaking to the group that Councillor McDuff was talking to and the copious amounts of groups that have come in and chat with me.

[1:21:43] There's a high interest in our community not to have that building torn down, right?

[1:21:48] We've really taken it on as a heritage building in our community and for folks listening,

[1:21:54] that's also what we represented, when we spoke to the Minister of Forestry and Parks,

[1:21:59] is that I believe in Councilor Martin.

[1:22:03] I think you have a lot of heritage and background in that building,

[1:22:08] but believe it was built a year before the town was incorporated.

[1:22:11] so it does have a big connection to our community. So definitely don't think we need the biggest

[1:22:17] option when we're working with the province. I believe it included an elevator, but

[1:22:22] having some nice bathrooms on a new carpet would be great. Any other questions? Council calling?

[1:22:30] And the exact spot where it says it on here, where the $270,000 option one has some very minimal stuff like positive drainage, a fan install, and then it says replacement of all electrical wiring, which is confusing, because then if I can't find it here, but if you scroll down, it did say something about for future expansion has to be replaced.

[1:22:51] So is this actually needed?

[1:22:54] Like it seems like this is an over-inflated cost for something that doesn't need to be done

[1:22:58] As they're expecting us to redo the entire building when I don't think it needs to actually happen.

[1:23:03] I've noticed a few little inconsistencies in the report as well, and we haven't communicated with the authors of the report as to why that is, so I can't speak to that.

[1:23:15] And does a second question, did this study was this the Alberta government?

[1:23:21] Yeah, it was completed to understand by a little bit of force to be in parks.

[1:23:28] Yeah, it just seems like a very over-inflated government project.

[1:23:31] Like this doesn't need to happen, so I'm just concerned here with these prices and

[1:23:35] their options.

[1:23:36] Like they even said in their poor, which can't find it, the black nose has been remediated

[1:23:40] with the windows.

[1:23:41] So yeah, I'm just very inconsistent, seemingly like the one I spent a ton of money, as

[1:23:46] do typical government projects.

[1:23:47] So I'm just concerned with it. That's my concerns and I could be wrong. It's very large reports. I'm trying to go back and forth.

[1:23:54] But yeah, there's inconsistencies inside of it.

[1:24:02] What's the electrical in 1985 when it was redone and when it was moved?

[1:24:09] It's still not up to code.

[1:24:14] I would share some of the cost concerns with this, but I think this is exactly why we have committee formed.

[1:24:20] that we don't have to get into the details of council here both the best ways to fix the

[1:24:24] electrical at this point. There's a group forming that cares about saving this building.

[1:24:30] Let's let them come up with the polls and that's the way to do it because we're not going to solve it here today.

[1:24:36] I agree 100% that is the intent of having a committee. I think our role is to support that committee

[1:24:42] and support their endeavors working with the province to ensure we have a good heritage building in our

[1:24:49] community, but that's I think that's exactly it. Any other questions?

[1:24:58] Well Shannon, go ahead. So just to touch on that. So the report obviously was prepared for

[1:25:03] the provincial government because it is currently their asset. So if they were to obviously

[1:25:08] fix that asset, they would do it to whichever standards that they would see fit in that report.

[1:25:13] Given the results of that report, they didn't endeavor to move forward with it, hence the engagement

[1:25:18] with the town. So now it's up to us whether or not the town wants to take over that asset and

[1:25:23] take over those liabilities. And then if we want to proceed with any of those options or

[1:25:27] a combination or a reduction of those options, if we're assuming liability over that asset

[1:25:32] that we can certainly do that because it would be on the town and no longer on the province

[1:25:35] through a disposition agreement. So essentially what we're looking for for council today as

[1:25:40] the society is in the process of being incorporated. They don't have everything kind of finalized yet

[1:25:45] but that is in the works as I understand it.

[1:25:48] So essentially what we're looking for from administration perspective is whether or not council

[1:25:53] is wanting us to proceed in getting that agreement and getting things rolling with the

[1:25:59] provincial government to get that asset turned over to us that when the committee is formed

[1:26:02] that they can move ahead or if we want to wait until that committee has been established

[1:26:06] to then have the discussion with the province to take over that asset because right now

[1:26:12] It's not ours. We can't do anything with it. My recommendation would be that we wait until the committee's formed until we appoint a council representative see what their plans are and then bring it back to council

[1:26:23] chat with council and say, is our contribution going to be in kind? Is it going to be a financial contribution? What is that contribution going to look like?

[1:26:30] And then enter into the negotiations with the province to say, okay, we now know what the full picture looks like. We are prepared to take over the building.

[1:26:39] the the the associate and land next to it and then kind of finalize that agreement because

[1:26:44] once it's ours it's ours and it's going to be probably a 510 maybe 25-year term depending

[1:26:49] on what the province has come to rule with but they've expressed great interest in wanting

[1:26:53] the town to take it over and I think we definitely have a lot of heritage, a lot of roots

[1:26:58] and a lot of investment from our community members in wanting that asset so just a matter of what

[1:27:02] it looks like and as we obviously go into budget 2027 we want to be cognizant that if council wants

[1:27:07] make any financial contributions that we are encompassing it there, and then again, if not,

[1:27:12] then that's perfectly acceptable as well. So essentially just bringing that report for Council's

[1:27:16] information so you have an idea and there's no surprises later down the line as we get further

[1:27:21] and further into these discussions. Well said, thank you. Any other questions, comments?

[1:27:29] If not, could I get somebody to make a motion?

[1:27:35] Can't say this part, thank you sir, kind of just been waiting to the wheels and so fast

[1:27:39] in the draw.

[1:27:41] I make the motion that the committee of the whole receive the CN Engineering Report as

[1:27:46] information.

[1:27:47] All in favor, pose, none carried.

[1:27:53] Seven correspondence.

[1:27:54] I see there's none on my list.

[1:27:56] Is there any correspondence that comes in since?

[1:28:00] Okay, we'll move on and we'll go to a closed session.

[1:28:05] So can I have a motion to go into closed session?

[1:28:08] Deputy Mayor Martin.

[1:28:10] I moved to go into closed session at 420.

[1:28:13] Awesome.

[1:28:13] Maybe we can take a five minute mile break.

[1:28:18] Oh, all in favor?

[1:28:20] Second time I did that.

[1:28:23] Thank you.

[1:28:24] Thank you.

[1:28:25] Larry, thank you for coming out.

Committee of the Whole

Agenda

Transcript