[0:01] Good morning. I'll call the meeting to
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[0:35] Thank you for your cooperation and
understanding.
[0:38] We have an agenda in front of us. Is
there any additions, deletions, or
[0:42] changes?
[0:45] Councelor Clayton.
>> Oh, microphone, please.
[0:50] » I'd like to add a safety item to the
agenda.
[0:54] » Okay.
safety item.
[0:58] Is that
open discussion?
[1:02] » It will be.
>> Okay, fair enough. Um, any suggestions
[1:06] where we want to put that in the new
business
[1:09] 8.6.
[1:18] Is there anything that you would have to
circulate for us so we have some
[1:20] information with it or is just verbal?
Okay, perfect. Anything else?
[1:28] Motion to adopt as amended.
>> Also move.
[1:31] » Thank you. Motion on the floor. We're
using escribe.
[1:37] All the question.
[1:58] That's carried. Is there any notice of
motion from any counselors?
[2:05] Seeing any. We'll move on to bylaw
readings. We have bylaw 2026-15
[2:11] municipal public utilities bylaw.
Welcome
[2:24] Good morning, council. Jose Podio
Quervo, uh here with administration
[2:28] presenting the Redland Water Servicing,
uh bylaw reading. Uh this is a
[2:33] continuation of a previous uh council
agenda that we had on August 11th. So,
[2:38] I'll just be reading the introduction
and then the rest of the report is um
[2:42] content that I've already uh presented.
So, at its uh uh August 11 regular
[2:49] council meeting, council passed the
resolution to include a requirement for
[2:54] a minimum 50% landowner commitment in
the form of a payment prior to
[2:58] construction commencing and to bring the
revised bylaw back to council for
[3:02] consideration.
Administration has res uh revised the
[3:06] draft municipal public utilities bylaw
accordingly. The revised bylaw attached
[3:11] to this report for council's
consideration now includes section
[3:14] three, initial redland servicing
threshold within part one of schedule F.
[3:19] Section 3 establishes a minimum
threshold of five service connection
[3:23] requests before the county may proceed
with construction of the common water
[3:27] infrastructure.
This threshold represents 50% of the
[3:31] existing developed or partially
developed residential properties within
[3:34] the community.
For the purpose of meeting this
[3:38] threshold, an eligible service uh
connection request must be submitted in
[3:42] a form acceptable to the CAO with the
applicable connection fee paid and
[3:46] retained by the county and must not have
been withdrawn, refused, canceled, or
[3:50] refunded. While construction would
therefore not proceed until at least
[3:53] five qualifying connection requests have
been received, the connection fee
[3:57] recommended by administration is based
on achieving full cost recovery of the
[4:02] initial infrastructure costs with at
least eight service connections as
[4:06] discussed later in this report. The
report presented on August 11 included
[4:11] the following components. A draft
municipal public utilities bylaw
[4:16] including the addition of schedule F.
proposed amendments to the master
[4:20] schedule of fees bylaw, including the
proposed Redland water servicing
[4:23] connection fee and a proposed capital
budget adjust uh addition sufficient to
[4:28] fund installation of the common uh
redland water servicing infrastructure.
[4:34] Because other amendments to the master
schedule fees bylaw are also being
[4:37] presented to council at this meeting,
the proposed Redland connection fee will
[4:40] be brought forward as part of the
broader bylaw update. If the uh
[4:45] utilities bylaw does not receive the
third reading, administration recommends
[4:49] that the redland connection fee also not
proceed at this time and instead be
[4:53] reconsidered following approval of the
municipal public utilities bylaw.
[4:58] Similarly, the proposed capital budget
addition for Redland water servicing
[5:03] should only be approved if both
utilities bylaw and the amended master
[5:06] schedule fees bylaw, including the
redline connection fee, receive third
[5:10] reading. A proposed resolution
respecting the capital budget addition
[5:15] is therefore included later in this
report for council's consideration
[5:19] subject to approval of both bylaws.
Aside from minor revisions to the report
[5:24] in context of the updated information
described above, the rem the remainder
[5:29] of this report is substantially the same
as the information presented to council
[5:33] on August 11. And that concludes my
presentation and I'm here for any
[5:38] questions.
>> Thank you. Council questions. Councelor
[5:43] Ker,
[5:47] you said Celer Larson. I said Kester.
Okay. Thank you.
[5:57] Just want to ask some questions and uh
make sure we're being absolutely fair
[6:02] here.
Recently we put it in the water line for
[6:09] uh Goldsmith
or CGC.
[6:14] We uh engineered it, got a water
license, drilled it, put the pipe in.
[6:21] We built it bigger than what CGC wanted
and when CGC was asked to pay for their
[6:29] share, they paid for their share and the
county has the rest. We didn't ask them
[6:35] for money upfront. We didn't ask them
for anything that I'm aware of. They uh
[6:41] they paid it up.
We have rape pairs in Redland asked for
[6:46] water. the water's there
and they're being asked to pay upfront.
[6:53] We don't have a definite price what it's
going to cost yet because it's not
[6:56] built. We have contingency fees in
there. Engineering fee to me seems
[7:02] excessive for what it is
and comes in two parts which I think
[7:09] could be just one tender.
like you you put the line in the ground,
[7:15] you have to put a end on the line. You
can't just leave it lay on the dirt. So
[7:20] the the stop connection has to be there
[7:26] and then when people want to hook up to
it, they would pay for it and get it
[7:31] hooked up.
Uh yeah. Uh fear of everybody not
[7:38] hooking up.
I don't think it's Sarah. Name name
[7:43] anybody and pick a hamlet that has water
or a town
[7:50] who doesn't have water. They that's a
necessity. They only have w don't have
[7:56] water if they don't pay for it. And
that's the first thing they do is pay
[8:00] off their bill so they get water again.
It's it's it's a thing.
[8:05] So why in this case are we being so
hard?
[8:11] So the total price comes to
[8:16] 189,000 plus
[clears throat]
[8:20] plus uh
[8:25] 4,000 * 10. That's another 40,200.
And there it is, $222,922.50.
[8:39] Further on in the application, further
along in the meeting, you see that we
[8:43] want each one to pay $27,000
for their water, which is $5,000 more.
[8:52] The rationale is being that maybe only
eight will sign up and and the county
[8:58] will be out money.
But when they all sign up, the countyy's
[9:02] going to have more money.
And to date, I've never seen the county
[9:07] charge more for something from our
residents.
[9:11] This hamlet's been there since since the
railroad come through before we were a
[9:17] county.
It was a stop. It had grain elevators.
[9:23] Recently, in the last year since I've
been here, we've had one, two, three new
[9:28] houses come in. One is still under
construction. Been a long time under
[9:34] construction. Got new owners and
whatnot.
[9:38] The second last house built
didn't even drill a well
[9:44] because nobody had water.
And the third newest house drilled a
[9:51] well but doesn't have good water.
When
[9:57] years ago
it never had much water either. But what
[10:03] happened I believe and I'm no geologist.
These wells are only 20 ft deep. They
[10:11] hit water. There's a coal seam down
there.
[10:15] The water gets sucked out and the gas
comes in and they produce gas.
[10:22] So, as the water gets used up, more
people using it, the gas changes,
[10:29] plus there's way more gas being drawn
off the fields.
[10:35] I know a place to the south, no north,
drilled a new well when he built a new
[10:41] house. He's not in the hamlet. Across
the creek, which was a spit difference
[10:47] away,
drilled a new well on top of the hill.
[10:51] He got water.
Couldn't drink it. Too much whatever is
[10:58] in it. You'll have to ask him. I'm not
going to tell you what was in it.
[11:02] They ended up
sealing that off of cement.
[11:08] Not B night. and Canada sealed it off
with cement. There's a water problem
[11:14] there. They don't have water.
Residents that lived around there, they
[11:19] put their own water in there.
And I don't know what their exact prices
[11:24] were, but they put in a lot more pipe
than we're putting in.
[11:28] And the one guy said he was hoping to do
it for 15,000. I don't know what it cost
[11:33] them.
We've had
[11:38] we've been going at this a long time.
We've had engineer studies coming here.
[11:44] They want and engineer had three main
lines. They had water going where I
[11:51] didn't even know there was lots
three main lines. It's there's just 10
[11:56] houses there. I believe one person moved
out. He got tired of waiting for waters
[12:02] and drum.
But somebody be buying. It's not a bad
[12:05] house. It's a fairly new one.
We'll sell the water.
[12:12] I I I I don't I don't understand why
we're asking. And it's always been since
[12:18] the start. They weren't paying for their
water. They were paying for extra.
[12:26] When the county wants extra money at CGC
or extra water, the county paid for it.
[12:34] These people aren't developers. They're
they're residents.
[12:39] When a developer comes in, they'll put
in extra because they hope to sell some
[12:43] extra lots.
When we have people come in, we haven't
[12:48] had any for a while, but we've have
people come in buy a lot at least.
[12:55] They just service their lot. We don't
ask and do the whole street.
[13:01] The county doesn't go in and do the
whole street either.
[13:07] So, I believe fundamentally
they should be asked to pay what it is,
[13:15] not not more, just what it is. The
county go ahead put it in.
[13:23] I don't. It's a simple 2-in line being
dug in. I can't see I can't see the need
[13:31] for reserves.
Line will last a 100red years. There's
[13:36] nothing going in the ground that can rot
out.
[13:42] I think this has gone on a long time,
but we talked about it last time when I
[13:48] had my objections about the eight units
charging extra for for water. What's the
[13:54] county going to do? Oh, it put it in a
reserve.
[14:00] I've got water lines buried in my yard
that are older than I am and I'm not
[14:05] anticipating and digging them up. And
they've never leaked. And you know what?
[14:10] They're they're clamped together with
steel and steel fittings.
[14:15] They use heat now to to join pipes
together. There is no steel
[14:21] or anything that'll corrode.
So, I I'd like you to really seriously
[14:27] think about this.
We uh
[14:32] Yeah,
we just charge what it costs. We're not
[14:36] here to make money.
[14:40] So, as this bylaw is, I'm not in favor
of it. [clears throat]
[14:46] We uh treat a developer, yeah, it's
great. They're coming in, they're
[14:52] spending lots of money, and they're
going to develop and we're going to have
[14:54] taxes, but we've got rateayers here and
people that have lived there for a
[14:59] hundred years paying their taxes, and
they've been here, and uh they have to
[15:05] pay extra. They have to ask. This is
going on four years at least asking for
[15:10] water. County can't come up with
anything. Well, they come up with stuff,
[15:14] but it's it's it's not right. And I've
been against it all the time. Just let
[15:21] them pay what it costs. That's all I'm
asking. That's all they're asking.
[15:26] They're not asking for half price. They
just let us pay for what it costs
[15:33] and people will pay for it.
[15:38] If they had water and they could drill
for water, they would drill it. There's
[15:44] one, two, one, two, three, four, five
people got water off of this line that
[15:52] had wells
[15:56] all within Well, I can't hear so good.
So, they're they're they're all close
[16:01] together, quarter mile together.
And there's one across the other way. On
[16:07] the other side, you can't see. And they
haven't asked for water. I don't know
[16:12] what their water situation is, but
there's people where the water line
[16:18] comes. There's a resident coming down
the hill,
[16:23] quarter mile to the south, half a mile
to the south. They got water. They they
[16:29] got it. And a half a mile past that, the
hutterite colonies going in. and they're
[16:34] concerned if they have enough water.
They got about four dugouts there and
[16:38] they're collecting water,
but they're they're uh in their hip pop
[16:45] pocket.
They could hook on to the water line and
[16:50] uh for drinking water, household water
that that's there, but their wells
[16:56] aren't aren't producers. There's no
water in that country. And that
[17:01] continues all the way down to past Delum
and into Starland County.
[17:07] So I'm just
[17:12] that's my feelings.
Just let them pay what it costs.
[17:21] Do you have a specific amendment you
want to put on the floor or anything
[17:24] like that or
>> I would say put something on the floor.
[17:29] It's not here. I would put a motion on
the floor that the county
[17:34] uh I don't know if this document's been
tendered or if it's just county's
[17:40] staff's estimate if they have to tender
it out or if they can just do it.
[17:47] I would like to see it
put in the ground.
[17:55] We'll come up with a cost and we'll sell
them the water.
[18:02] Just I'm just trying to think u how that
would be worded. So you're looking to
[18:08] basically proceed with this project
without
[18:11] doing any bylaws, anything like that is
what you're looking at.
[18:15] When we got water for
CGC, we passed the motion and uh
[18:25] there was a whole bunch of engineering
studies done, people looking at the size
[18:29] of reservoirs, get water from W. It took
a year or more and come up with the
[18:36] idea, put a pipeline in. We had a simple
motion, put a pipeline in, paid for the
[18:44] water license.
I know it was a little more complicated
[18:48] than that, but we didn't have the water.
There was nothing there. We had to find
[18:52] it.
[18:56] » See, Sher wants to leave to council for
clarification on the Goldfinch raw water
[19:02] line. In order for that to proceed,
there was a cost contribution
[19:06] commitment. we would have not proceeded
if they didn't pay their proportionate
[19:10] share and there was an advance. It
wasn't like we paid everything there
[19:13] were and I don't want to get into the
payment schedule but it there was a
[19:18] signed agreement that they would pay for
their proportionate share and I think
[19:22] Mr. Bulock couldn't clarify I believe
some of the engineering costs that we
[19:26] did do there were some that was the
county's responsibilities and some that
[19:30] the um developer contributed to as well.
So, we knew upfront they wanted
[19:36] clarification as well as to what their
costs would be before the project
[19:40] proceeded.
>> Yeah,
[19:43] I agree. But they paid their share, not
a a bluent amount.
[19:51] » Mr. Bulock,
>> uh yeah, through the chair, um as CEO
[19:56] Bears mentioned, it was a cost
contribution upfront. So, they did pay
[19:59] their upfront proportional uh fees. Um
when the project was finished, there was
[20:06] a reconciliation of the project costs.
Uh and there was some of that money was
[20:11] refunded to CGC ultimately, but of the
total project costs the um CGC paid
[20:17] their proportional share of the of the
pipeline they were using. Uh something
[20:21] like that model could be used similarly
here. Um the the the last uh framework
[20:29] that we um proposed was a cost
contribution agreement with individual
[20:35] uh rate or or land owners within
Redland. That would have been the exact
[20:39] same format that was used in Goldfinch.
In those agreements, the individuals
[20:45] wanting to connect would have paid an
upfront cost in that agreement. If the
[20:49] cost came in lower, the county would
refund those rateayers uh the the money.
[20:54] if it came in higher then then the land
owners would have to pay more. So, um,
[20:59] under that scenario, it was set up very,
very similarly to the Goldfinch, um,
[21:04] except in this case, there were multiple
people that would have been, uh,
[21:07] connecting. This one with the connection
fees is again a very similar uh,
[21:12] framework. Um, except right now there
isn't built in that refund, I think, is
[21:17] what you're talking about. If the costs
come in lower, the proposal would be the
[21:21] extra funds would go into reserve fund
used towards cap capital cost
[21:25] replacement or utility fees or you know
whichever council wanted to uh use those
[21:30] funds for. Another option could be um it
would require another resolution um
[21:36] could be if the costs come in
substantially lower than what is
[21:39] estimated here, a refund could be made
to the individuals who paid those uh
[21:43] connection fees if that's what council
wanted to do.
[21:46] So Brad, if I was to make a motion that
we go ahead with this and add a
[21:54] motion that any excess in
funds be returned
[22:04] of some sort. Does that make sense? I
And I don't want just eight people
[22:10] paying if there's 10 people there.
And I think
[22:18] the 189
that's the the cost. But to me that
[22:24] looks like the end of the line doesn't
have anything on it. It needs a a valve
[22:30] and a curb stop. Then you have another
one on the bottom. Another 4,000.
[22:35] I think that's the curb stop. The end of
the line that's got to be put on no
[22:40] matter what. So I would include that
that 20 thou 10 there must be 10 of
[22:47] them. So it would be 40,000. I would
include that in the 190 for the cost
[22:54] and I would is this a tendered out
document or do you have to do it or we
[23:00] how how
we going to move forward to get it done?
[23:04] Uh so through the chair um in the
connection fee that's um proposed in the
[23:09] bylaw um it does include the the the
connection with the curb stop and so it
[23:16] is the 189 divided by 8 plus the 4,000
for each for each of the connections. So
[23:21] it is included uh right now
>> that's included in the 190.
[23:25] » Yeah. Um and then to your other question
uh through the chair uh administration
[23:31] would quote or tender this project out
prior to pre per proceeding. So these
[23:36] estimates as you know are they are
estimates based on engineering uh the
[23:41] costs estimated cost that the
engineering consultant has provided to
[23:44] administration.
the project would be tendered out um
[23:48] with multiple quotes before
>> I can go for that then I can I would
[23:54] support tendering it out
[23:59] » putting it in with the curb stops in
installed
[24:04] and uh that way if I understand it right
the curb stops got a valve on top of the
[24:10] ground and the guy wants water they
apply and you go and you dig it up and
[24:15] hook a pipe on the end and stick the
other end in your house and turn the
[24:20] valve on. And I know that's a simple way
of doing it, but there's rules to follow
[24:26] to doing it, right?
>> Uh through the chair. Yeah, you're
[24:29] absolutely correct. Um
>> Okay. I think what we would want to do
[24:32] in that situation too when the if
council were to proceed with this and
[24:36] individuals were to pay the connections
fees um we would [clears throat]
[24:41] probably encourage them to talk to that
contractor who is installing it at the
[24:45] time because it may be some cost savings
for them to do the connection at the
[24:47] same time. I know we do the
whenever we do work at the WRC is same
[24:54] thing. We uh we don't require
engineers to look at the stuff.
[25:01] We need a qualified individual to do it.
And I think the counties agreed to that
[25:07] and then agreements we have for hookups.
I'm thinking it'd be much the same thing
[25:12] when people want to hook up
Redland. If they're doing the
[25:18] construction right away, I'm sure most
of them would say, "Hey, let's finish
[25:21] this off and whatever it takes." But
that would be on them, not the county
[25:28] through the That's correct. That portion
of the project. Yeah. And ultimately
[25:32] when it comes to engineering or qual we
just in in even in the agreement with
[25:37] the WRC that we've uh discussed is just
really what's required by the acts and
[25:42] regulations. That's what the county
requires to be done.
[25:45] » Yeah. No, that's a good agreement.
>> Perhaps Oh,
[25:51] » before I move it, does before I ramble
it on, does staff want to look at it?
[25:58] You know what I want? Do you want to
redo it or do you want me to ramble on
[26:01] and make something and and then comes
back in the minutes or what? What would
[26:06] be better?
>> You'd have to have a motion to amend
[26:09] with some information. Council would
have to vote on before staff would be
[26:13] able to do direction.
>> Okay. I'll make a motion then that we
[26:17] amend
[26:21] this uh bylaw
[26:26] that we put it in. If you I'll share
>> the bylaw isn't even forward yet. So
[26:32] you'd amend the proposed bylaw with a
specific area that you would want to
[26:36] amend and then we'd vote on that
or we could do first reading and then do
[26:42] a second on second reading do an
amendment whatever is probably better
[26:45] probably better to do the first reading
of the bylaw as it sits. I'm seeing
[26:49] nodding of the head and then amendment
can come on second or third.
[26:54] » Yes through the read to council. I just
wanted to clarify with Mr. Bullock if
[26:58] the bylaw is written such that we could
if it's exceeds the
[27:03] 189 it covers the cost that the increase
goes up or if it's lower that it's an
[27:08] automatically that we could adjust the
amounts if there's any flexibility if
[27:14] there's the need to amend the bylaw.
>> Yeah. Through the chair what I might
[27:19] recommend at this point is to leave the
bylaw as it is. So, so the the master uh
[27:25] the utilities bylaw has some provisions
in it generally for providing water
[27:30] servicing to the the Redland community
and the parameters around that. The
[27:36] connection fee um is actually going to
come in the next report from um
[27:42] [clears throat] from our our finance
manager with the master master schedule
[27:46] of fees. Um, what council could do in
this case is if if you're happy with the
[27:52] bylaws as they are and the connection
fee and then afterwards perhaps pass
[27:55] another resolution directing
administration at some future date once
[28:00] the project is tendered. Um, if the
costs come in lower than what the
[28:04] connection fee is, bring another report
um, uh, to council and re a mechanism
[28:11] for refunding the the additional fees if
if they are in addition to what the
[28:15] connection fee is. um because we could
do that after the fact. Um and then the
[28:19] bylaws as they are don't need to change.
Um it would just be something you could
[28:23] take care of later on once you know the
project costs and the project is
[28:27] complete.
>> Makes sense.
[28:31] » Councelor Hubs and then uh Deputy
Priest.
[28:34] » Uh Glenn, I agree with you. Your CGC
um your CGC thing was dead on. They paid
[28:40] upfront their share of it to get it. So
alls we've asked all along and I have
[28:45] rate payers that were even when I was on
the campaign trail that were discussing
[28:48] it and saying they don't want to
subsidize
[28:52] because they have to pay for their own
water and sewer and well and stuff. So
[28:56] all they're saying and all we agreed the
last meeting is that we would once we
[29:02] got five people which is 50% signed up
it would go forward. Until it does, I'm
[29:07] I'm just having till we get those five
signatures because there's quite a
[29:11] disparity on what
like you heard there's lots of people
[29:15] interested. Our staff have heard maybe
one maybe one. That's what we heard last
[29:20] time on camera. So I think in my opinion
I'm just having a tough time supporting
[29:25] any of this. A it's off budget and B if
they really want it just pay the
[29:30] deposit. CGC did. Thank you.
[29:35] Lapric,
>> I was just wondering if we could also um
[29:39] so not just if the cost of the project
is less, but say we do get 10 people
[29:45] that want to um apply for water, could
we then
[29:51] refund those who've paid
could we could we do could we manage it
[29:56] so that the people who who are in pay
for the cost of Yeah, I know it's gets
[30:02] complicated because then how long do you
Yeah, I'm I'm not sure. I'm just
[30:07] » So suggestion would be to once the
project is 100% complete, there'd be a
[30:11] reconciliation of funds,
>> what was needed, etc. comes back to a
[30:16] council in the future
>> and as a report I think that's what Mr.
[30:19] Bulock was saying and that council
whether it be us could be take three
[30:22] years for this to happen, it could take
a year,
[30:25] » who knows?
>> So then it would come back to that
[30:27] council to say the cost was this and we
have this many users. We charged them
[30:33] this. Yep.
>> We've got a note.
[30:36] » Yeah.
>> I think that's the only way to do it is
[30:38] wait till after the project's complete
100%.
[30:41] » Yeah.
>> Yeah. Okay.
[30:45] » Because you're assuming too many things.
There's a there's a lot of comparisons
[30:48] here that are not similar. Um when
you're talking about towns, towns, um
[30:54] have a bylaw that says you will hook
onto our services period. Like in
[30:58] Strathmore, you can't have a well.
Calgary you can't have a well. Lots of
[31:02] urban municipalities are like that. They
so you're not allowed to have both. So
[31:05] you have to pay whatever it is to hook
on to it. I've seen places where they've
[31:08] had wells for years and they had to go
take uh urban services, municipal
[31:13] services I should say. Councelor Kuster.
Uh I don't know if the word apology or
[31:19] not, but I lumped all these things into
one. I didn't know how else to do it to
[31:24] get my point across. I know CGC paid for
what they had. I also knew a lot of
[31:32] money was spent before they give up any
money because all I know is is what I
[31:37] hear and hear and I heard they paid up
and that was long after we had worked on
[31:42] it. We had
[31:46] it's water under the bridge. Anyway,
I'm good with this moving forward.
[31:54] I'm Nobody wants a subsidy. They want to
pay the cost. what it is. Previously,
[32:02] there's been other
[32:06] ways of doing it. Then it was going to
cost the one person over $60,000. They
[32:12] had extra land, but they only wanted one
wall. Water.
[32:17] That doesn't work in
there's 10 people there want water.
[32:22] That's probably all you're ever going to
see in your lifetime.
[32:27] So, if we can agree to
cost, however the county staff work it
[32:33] out, I'm happy with it. But paying
extra,
[32:38] no, [clears throat] just the cost and if
they get county gets too much, we refund
[32:43] it because when you go and put this in
the line the way it is now,
[32:49] there could be no contingency fee spent.
There's 10% difference right there.
[32:55] And I imagine that's all sand there. If
they go too deep, they're going to hit
[32:59] coal.
So,
[33:03] uh, yeah, I'm confident. And, uh, to get
these guys water. So, with that,
[33:12] I'll move first reading.
First reading's on the floor from
[33:17] Councelor Kesser. Discussion. Councelor
Hebs.
[33:21] [clears throat]
>> Yeah. I mean, I I just from staff. So
[33:25] the the cost is at least 189 plus 40,000
more. Correct? It's 222,000,
[33:32] right? And we need 50% of the We need
50% of the residents down there. I'm
[33:38] just for clarification. We need 50% of
the residents down there to put up a
[33:42] deposit before we start. There's no use
tendering it until we get those 50%. In
[33:46] my opinion,
[33:50] » were you asking a question of staff on
that?
[33:51] » Yeah.
>> Okay.
[33:53] I'm reading the reading.
>> Just double checking. Okay.
[33:57] » Uh yeah, through the chair. The way the
bylaws are set up right now is for a
[34:01] minimum of eight connections. Um the the
connection fee is based on eight
[34:05] connections. And then the bylaw reads
that a minimum of five connections would
[34:10] need connection uh requests and um uh
connection fees would be paid before the
[34:16] county moves forward.
five being um the half of the current
[34:21] residential properties that are located
in Redland right now. Um of course if if
[34:25] council wanted to adjust either of those
numbers uh they certainly could.
[34:32] » Question I have a staff although
[clears throat] the council of the area
[34:35] says there won't be any further
development there. My feeling is if
[34:38] there's water there that could it's a
cheaper place to buy. There is other
[34:42] lots. The main lines that are going in,
are they sized large enough that if
[34:47] three more lots come on 10 years down
the road, we're not having put new mains
[34:50] in?
And I'm pretty sure it's not, but I'm
[34:55] just want to check that answer. It is a
trickle system, so I know it's kind of
[34:58] tricky because it's not there's no fire
flows or not, but I'm just thinking
[35:03] I see it all the time in the county.
We're getting uh second dwellings on
[35:07] acreages lots. We're seeing densities
going up in the county. It makes sense
[35:10] at some point down there if it's
cost-ffective and they have utilities
[35:14] they will someone will say hey that lot
I I'll sell it to somebody and develop
[35:18] it
am I so do we have capacity if the
[35:23] system goes in to add on
>> uh to the chair yes there is capacity to
[35:28] add on um the one of the ways that uh
administration with our engineering
[35:33] consultant was able to uh get the cost
uh down a little bit more on this um is
[35:38] we would use uh similar valve vault to
what C uh um the WRC uses for all of the
[35:45] single rural connections. Um with a
trickle system though, those val valve
[35:49] vaults, the capacity of them, they can
handle 12 or more connections depending
[35:53] on the trickle flow. Um and so
additional houses could get added onto
[35:58] the system. Um and then if it even
exceeded that, if Redland expanded even
[36:02] more, uh you could install a second
valve vault to be able to handle the
[36:06] flows. And so there certainly are ways
for it to do it, but it would be under
[36:10] the same trickle system uh to avoid the
extra cost of a central reservoir.
[36:15] » Thank you. Any other questions? Motion's
on the floor for first reading. I'll
[36:22] call a question.
[36:42] That's carried
[36:48] caster.
[36:52] No. So I don't
I'd like to amend it
[36:59] that uh
based on full recovery of the 10 lots
[37:05] instead of eight
[37:09] and a minimum threshold of five with a
deposit
[37:16] not fully paid up
[37:22] unless you know what fully paid up is.
But being that it isn't constructed, we
[37:30] won't know what the total price is until
it's constructed.
[37:40] Does that make sense?
[37:46] Can we 75% of anticipated price or
something?
[37:52] » We'd have to see it in a some kind of
way format.
[38:00] » You have the anticipated price. It's
189,000 plus 40,000.
[38:04] » Yeah,
>> that's the anticipated price. So I, you
[38:08] know,
>> not out to tender yet.
[38:11] I'm guessing that within whatever the
percentage is going to be, there's now
[38:18] an ability to pay them back if it's too
much. Right.
[38:23] Right. So, I just,
you know, 75% so that's 15,000 upfront.
[38:35] Um, yeah, through the chair. Um, I think
council could um get it into the bylaw
[38:42] that way, although it's a little bit
unusual for a bylaw setup with a
[38:47] connection fee. Um, I think what council
may want to do is just either either
[38:53] lower the the cost in the bylaw. The
problem is is if it ends up coming in as
[38:59] more um council will have challenges
collecting that cost. Um what council
[39:06] may want to do is is what's being
proposed is sort of what was under the
[39:10] the previous approach of uh individual
service connections or or cost
[39:15] contribution agreements with each of the
individuals that were connecting. That's
[39:18] what we did last time. Um what council
may want to consider again is just
[39:23] passing a resolution directing council
to later on um uh uh come back to
[39:31] council with a uh report regarding cost
um
[39:38] trying to think of the word uh
reconciliation to those that have paid
[39:42] the uh the connection fees. And then
council can still if if if if the cost
[39:47] did come in lower than what the original
estimate was, council could still refund
[39:52] that that cost, redo the connection fee
within the master schedule of fees um
[39:59] bylaw [clears throat] based on the
actual construction costs and and still
[40:03] refund that money. But it'd be yeah to
to kind of try and do a re uh a deposit
[40:09] now that's less than and then collect
that money later through a bylaw would
[40:13] be would be quite challenging to
administer.
[40:16] » Thank you.
>> Go ahead.
[40:18] » Um I just have a comment. I know that um
that wells cost between anywhere from
[40:24] $30 to $60,000 to put in a new well. So
with that I I'm okay with the price. I
[40:31] just have a question. Um, this probably
won't be going for uh forward this fall,
[40:38] would it? Or would it be spring? When
are you thinking of being able to
[40:45] put it in
>> through the chair? It is unlikely this
[40:50] fall. Um, but it would all hinge on
>> when the connection fees, when the
[40:55] request came in. to me when you give
them that price they have, you know, a
[40:58] few months to get
probably six maybe even more months to
[41:03] get that uh that funds gathered up. So,
I'm okay with how it is.
[41:09] » Bars and then councelor Ker
>> through the reef to council to address
[41:13] councelor's um caster motion to amend
the bylaw um because we're on that
[41:18] debate. I just want to for
clarification, you were asking to lower
[41:22] the threshold of the five to
less commitment and then the other was a
[41:28] deposit instead of the full amount.
I'm just looking on page four,
[41:34] second paragraph
says would not proceed until at least
[41:38] five qualifying connection requests have
been received. The connection fee
[41:44] recommended by administration is based
on achieving full recovery of the
[41:48] initial infra cost with at least eight
service connections.
[41:59] Now that paragraph is in reference to
another motion
[42:06] haven't got
it has nothing in there about paying or
[42:11] anything.
Right. So I I don't know what I see that
[42:17] in there.
[42:22] I don't agree with the concept,
[42:27] but that doesn't mention what it is in
full.
[42:34] It's a combination of of the three
different things.
[42:38] But if
>> I agree, we want five qualifying
[42:41] connection requests been received. Great
with that.
[42:46] Uh full recovery instead of the eight. I
would put 10 in there if that has to be
[42:51] in there.
[42:54] It's going to happen at some time.
These people are hauling water.
[43:05] Councelor Beer. Thanks.
I just uh if you go and read on to the
[43:10] schedules, that's just a summary on page
four. If you read the actual bylaws, it
[43:14] lists them in there that it's saying
that it's the five. It does say the
[43:19] eight. And then it says um it's not a
deposit, it is uh recovery.
[43:26] But what they're saying is that if it
does come in less, we can re um bring it
[43:33] back and and re uh re rebate those
people that paid more.
[43:40] [clears throat]
>> So if we amend it now, I I can't see
[43:44] amending it now.
We still don't know the price. Councelor
[43:51] HS um
I mean I'd like to get those people
[43:56] water too. I just you know
[clears throat] but um
[44:00] I like and I was going to mention
Donna's point about a well costing 30 to
[44:04] 60,000. You can spend that kind of money
and not get water as we all know. So
[44:09] they're actually for their
[clears throat] money up front, they're
[44:11] going to get usable water within a short
period of time of them getting they know
[44:17] they're going to get water like as you
you mentioned yourself the gentleman
[44:20] across the drilled the well and then
filled it in with bent night or
[44:24] whatever, right? So I I I just think
that you need to have full commitment
[44:30] that they're serious about wanting it
rather than I I think that's just so
[44:34] easy then it's just it's just clear and
concise. Thank you. I don't I don't have
[44:38] a problem with the commitment part at
all. It's the price. I want it for them
[44:46] to pay it at cost. I don't want the
county to have a an extra fund of money.
[44:57] If if they pay too much, it should be
returned to them. And if five years down
[45:03] the road somebody comes along and they
put in another house and want a
[45:08] connection fee,
I leave that up for another council.
[45:12] These guys are putting up
full cost for the full line.
[45:19] There are ways of giving them money
back, but I don't want to go down to
[45:24] there. There's timelines
and and stuff for that, too. I think
[45:29] that would just be the counties for my
point, but that would be a different
[45:33] decision for a different council.
>> CEO bar [clears throat] through the reef
[45:38] to council. You have a couple options
here.
[45:41] » Thank you.
>> Is that um with the motion to make those
[45:44] amendments um if that passes then we
would request that council then just
[45:51] leave it with that resolution after
having given first reading. allow us to
[45:55] to bring it back to the now next council
because it's not within the report that
[46:00] we need to redline us to make sure it's
captured in the bylaw correctly with
[46:04] what um councelor Kester would like to
see. And so we would bring it back if
[46:09] that passes that you would like to see
those types of amendments reflected in
[46:12] the bylaw. If not, then it would proceed
as is. As far as what what um Mr. Bulock
[46:19] had said that we would capture that in
the master fee schedule and come back if
[46:23] it's overpaid for the refund. We would
make sure individuals were compensated
[46:28] if they overpaid.
>> Perfect. I agree with that.
[46:33] So, is there a motion on the floor?
[46:38] [laughter]
>> I just don't see it up here, but I don't
[46:41] need some wording
>> know how to encompass it because it's in
[46:44] three different things.
[46:48] Well, I if there's a mo the reason that
if there's a going to be a motion, we
[46:51] have to vote on that before we do
anything else. Go ahead.
[46:54] » Could we though not pass all all of
these motions and then just have a
[46:59] motion following saying that C council
directs administration to bring back a
[47:05] reconciliation of the costs and costs
per user and our council can decide at
[47:11] that point whether any rebates are
warranted.
[47:14] » That would be far easier. Yes. Could we
not do it that way just for
[47:19] » through the reef to council? That's that
works as long as council ker because he
[47:23] mentioned a deposit not full payment and
that was be that was the only other
[47:28] motion that I had that you were looking
to amend was a deposit rather than full
[47:32] payment.
[47:38] Councelor Lis.
>> I think we have to proceed the way
[47:43] councelor Kester wanted because right in
the bylaw it says that um
[47:49] Redland Utility Services Reserve Fund is
where the surplus revenues will be
[47:54] placed.
So the bylaw as it reads doesn't
[48:00] steward to what councelor Ktor is asking
for. [clears throat]
[48:05] else he think rather than pass these
three we should just go back and get
[48:10] exactly what we want and then decide
because I don't you know when you think
[48:16] of what well costs are and this and that
I'm not comfortable with a percentage I
[48:20] think it should be full up so maybe it
just goes back because we we can pass
[48:26] all these but then we got to redo
another bylaw to get to the next step
[48:29] anyhow
>> I'm just going to say something I'm
[48:33] really frustrated with this I've been
doing this for a year and a half at
[48:36] least on this. We've looked at this four
times at least. We come to this, we seem
[48:41] to understand it, comes to actually make
a decision and it falls apart. You know
[48:44] who hurts on this is the people that
live there. If they truly want it,
[48:47] they'll sign up for it and we can
reconcile after. Having a reserve fund
[48:52] isn't a bad thing. Things are going to
break. We know that. It's we're we're
[48:57] going through asset management through
the whole county. We know that we things
[49:00] break. You may say it's not going to
break for 100 years. It could break
[49:03] tomorrow. Products and services that you
buy now are crap compared to what they
[49:08] were 50 years ago. So that's the reality
of it. So if this dies here, I don't
[49:13] want to see it again.
I'm tired of this. It's gone around and
[49:18] around and around and we're not getting
anywhere. And the people that actually
[49:21] need it are being pulled in different
directions. Councelor Ker,
[49:26] » I want this thing to go through. If
we're agreement that they're going to
[49:30] pay cost,
I'm everybody's 100% with that. This is
[49:36] the first time they got a good chance of
paying cost.
[49:40] If you want a full 100% deposit,
remember that when everything else comes
[49:45] down in the county that we had to charge
these people their 100% deposit, buying,
[49:50] I'm just trying to be fair and other
things we've done. I am okay with this.
[49:57] I don't know if Redland needs a reserve
of 50 or $100,000, half of the value of
[50:05] that pipeline
for what it is.
[50:12] Let them pay cost.
[50:16] That's all I'm asking. [clears throat]
If we can agree to cost, I'm fine.
[50:24] Councelor Clayton and Councelor Hubs
[50:29] » not being involved in it for six and a
half years or whatever, but Redland
[50:33] sounds like they need the water. It
sounds like they have no ability to
[50:39] drill for water.
If the county wants Redland to even
[50:45] exist
and the rate payers are requiring water
[50:50] to be supported,
we've got to figure out a way to move
[50:55] ahead with it right right now. I don't
think that's should be taken off the
[51:00] books today for a future vote.
I think we should be able to come to an
[51:07] agreement that they pay full cost
based on
[51:13] future tendered
engineering cost.
[51:20] And I'm not sure if that is something
that takes six months or whether it's a
[51:26] a twomonth time period before you get
that.
[51:31] But, uh, I think they should pay,
uh, an agreed cost upfront and carry on.
[51:40] [clears throat]
I'll just point out like I don't I I
[51:44] just don't see the rush. There's people
all over the county that are hauling
[51:47] water just like Redlands is. There's I
think there's a fair amount of homes
[51:53] southeast of Standard that are hauling
water to Sistns, right? I'm positive of
[51:57] that. Right. We have a water treatment.
So, I don't I don't think there I think
[52:01] we need to make sure that we got our our
50% commitment and that they're paying
[52:06] full cost and then after that it goes
forward. Any sooner than that, I think
[52:10] we're I think we're doing a disservice
to the people that that are paying the
[52:15] full freight. Mr. Bulock,
>> um yeah, if council wants to to hear
[52:21] through the chair, um we did do up a a
resolution that council could consider
[52:26] as part of this whole process. And so
what this would be would be passing uh
[52:31] both bylaws as they are or if council
wanted to adjust uh one of those two
[52:36] numbers, one or both of those two
numbers that we're discussing and then
[52:39] afterwards pass a resolution essentially
directing administration to come back to
[52:44] council and present a a potential cost
uh reconciliation framework. So I can
[52:50] read that out if council wants to hear
it.
[52:52] » Please do. Um, so this says that council
direct administration to bring back a
[52:57] report following completion of the
initial construction phase of the
[53:00] Redland water servicing project to
present options for potential cost
[53:05] reconciliation for land owners who paid
the initial connection fee should actual
[53:10] project cost be lower than the original
per connection per connection estimate.
[53:15] And that uh is a standing resolution now
uh for council and for administration to
[53:20] bring this back to council afterwards.
and potentially explore cost uh
[53:25] reconciliation with those land owners if
those costs are in fact lower than what
[53:29] was originally estimated per connection.
>> Thank you. I'll withdraw my motion.
[53:37] » Thank you. So then we could proceed with
the the all the readings of this bylaw
[53:44] do that motion in between there and then
we go into the schedule fees.
[53:49] » Yes. through the chair and I just make
that point that that the next report
[53:52] will have the actual schedule of fees
with the connection fees. This one
[53:55] manages the provisions for uh the actual
water servicing um and and it also sets
[54:01] the minimum number of connections uh
before uh administration would proceed
[54:06] with the with the construction project.
So that's what this bylaw does. The
[54:10] connection fee will come in the in the
next report
[54:13] » CEO bars and then councelor bigger
>> through the reef to council. It was just
[54:20] that Mr. Sheen when he does the master
fee schedules will address the reserves
[54:25] so that it gives um some peace of mind
as to what we'll do with the reserves
[54:30] and put it in a special place for
reconciliation at a later later date.
[54:36] » Thank you.
With that, I'd like to move C that that
[54:41] council approves second reading of bylaw
2026-15.
[54:46] » Thank you. Motion on the floor. Any
further discussion?
[54:50] » I'll call a question.
[55:06] Just waiting for the vote to come in.
That's carried. Councelor Clayton.
[55:12] » I move that council grant permission to
hold third and final reading of bylaw
[55:17] 2026-15.
>> Thank you. A motion on the floor. This
[55:21] has to have unanimous unanimous support
to continue. Go ahead. through the re
[55:26] just for clarity too that um this one
has to go through or it affects the
[55:30] master fee schedule bylaw as well.
>> So if we don't do third reading of this,
[55:34] we can't go on a master schedule. So
that's just something else for council
[55:38] to be aware of. Um any further
discussion before I call a question
[55:42] Corey,
>> it's it's just that one part. Excuse me.
[55:46] It's the one part that is the redland
part of the bylaw is affected.
[55:51] » Okay. Yeah. Through the chair. So, uh,
just on the next bylaw, council will
[55:55] probably have to amend that one. Fair
enough. Council's aware of what's going
[55:58] on.
[56:01] I will call a question.
[56:17] Has
[56:24] anybody seen our 10 o'clock appointment?
Is he coming in online or do we know our
[56:28] 10:00 appointment?
[56:32] Okay, I haven't seen him yet. Okay.
[56:39] Still voting.
Okay.
[56:57] That's carried unanimously.
Council's wishes.
[57:04] » I'll move that council approves third
and final reading of bylaw 2026-15.
[57:09] » Thank you. Motion on the floor. Any
discussion for third and final? or call
[57:13] a question
[57:26] and that's carried. There was an
additional motion attached at the bottom
[57:30] on number five in your screen in front
of you that was kind of developed from
[57:34] discussion on here.
[57:40] Someone wants to make that motion.
Mr. Clayton
[57:44] » move that council direct administration
to bring back a report following
[57:48] completion of the initial construction
phase of the Redland water servicing
[57:52] project to present options for potential
cost reconciliation
[57:57] for land owners who paid the initial
connection fee should actual project
[58:01] cost be lower than the original per
connection estimate
[58:06] hubs. Um, the way I read the motion is
it's report following completion of the
[58:12] initial construction phase. I thought we
weren't going to do any construction
[58:17] until we get the five deposits
through the chair. That's correct. So,
[58:23] this report wouldn't come back um unless
that initial connection fee phase
[58:28] happened and unless the the actual cost
came in lower than the original
[58:32] estimate. [snorts]
I'd support this if it didn't have the
[58:37] word initial in there because the
construction phase like what is initial
[58:41] is that the first meeting and you know
they come across and they start putting
[58:46] stuff in and they come across a buried
car or something you know who knows or
[58:49] environmental cleanup or
[58:56] yeah
okay
[59:01] up the thing and they got it hooked up.
>> Yeah.
[59:07] comes in.
>> It's come back to council anyway. So,
[59:10] » it's the done deal.
>> It's come back to council anyway. So,
[59:14] oh, never mind. Any further discussion?
Motions on the floor by councelor
[59:18] Clayton.
All the question
[59:35] that's carried.
Move on to since our 10:00 I don't see
[59:40] it here. Nothing. Okay. Uh bylaw 2026-17
mascus schedule fees bylaw. This
[59:46] dovetales into what we've been talking
about. This now shows the
[59:51] actual fees.
Morning council. Joel from
[59:55] administration here to present your next
agenda item. I believe it was on page
[1:00:02] 503.
[1:00:13] Okay.
Apologies
[1:00:20] for that.
So I'll just start with the the last
[1:00:25] item on the table here uh since it kind
of fits in with the prior discussion
[1:00:29] point. Uh so as you can see the water
service connection fee for Redland the
[1:00:34] amount there for the 27,659
based on uh the bylaw uh discussion in
[1:00:40] the prior um prior discussion.
And just to kind of go back to the
[1:00:46] reserves concept. So, uh, council has a
reserves policy. And so, each each
[1:00:53] reserve, uh, council has the ability
when we amend that policy to, uh, update
[1:00:58] for this Redland reserve. Uh, the
purpose and, uh, the description for
[1:01:03] each specific reserve can be, uh, chosen
by council and amended. So council would
[1:01:09] have the ability uh at the time of the
creation of the reserve to specify the
[1:01:13] purpose whether it's for strictly for
asset renewal or uh an initial
[1:01:17] reconciliation purpose for repayment. Um
there's a there's some flexibility with
[1:01:22] uh when we do the reserves policy itself
and bring that to council. So just to
[1:01:26] give uh council some information on
that.
[1:01:30] Uh in terms of the other items here uh
they're all uh essentially housekeeping
[1:01:34] items. They're they relate to the
committee the whole meeting. um that was
[1:01:39] in August and uh so just to kind of
quickly go through them,
[1:01:45] the first two were uh fee amendments,
administration fees. Uh the curb stop on
[1:01:50] and off fee uh was a proposed increase.
uh when we worked with uh kind of
[1:01:55] looking at the cost with our contractor
of uh how much it cost the Wheatland
[1:02:00] County to go turn off those curb stops
and turn them on again. Uh this was kind
[1:02:04] of the full cost recovery approach as
opposed to the $50.
[1:02:08] Uh and then the second one there uh
dropping from the 3% to 2% uh for in
[1:02:14] terms of the monthly penalty on a rears
balances. Again, that just puts us in
[1:02:19] line with a lot of other local community
averages.
[1:02:23] And then there's just some housekeeping
wording changes in there in terms of our
[1:02:27] our banners and changing it to um the
water and wastewater services. Uh just
[1:02:32] ensuring for clarity that all of the
fixed fees, the flat rates, capital
[1:02:36] levies that they're all payable uh even
when there's no uh per cubic usage on a
[1:02:41] given billing cycle.
And then uh again just an administrative
[1:02:47] change with the uh the plumbing
administration fees here in the middle
[1:02:50] section. uh just providing some clarity
on the the billing approach itself. Um
[1:02:55] so that concludes my presentation. I'm
available for any questions.
[1:02:59] » Thank you. Any questions,
[1:03:03] councelor Ker?
[1:03:09] » The connection fee of 27,000
[1:03:16] adept
[1:03:22] I'm I'm at a loss. I want them to pay
what it costs.
[1:03:30] So that
when 10 of them build it and this is not
[1:03:35] going to cost $270,000
to put this in.
[1:03:41] We'll be the laughing stock. Like we've
got quotes for 80,000.
[1:03:47] So, what can we do with this? It just re
rely on that motion that Brad made and
[1:03:52] and a and next council meeting when it's
all done, council makes an adjustment.
[1:03:59] Would that be fair?
[1:04:04] Find the upfront cost is
[1:04:11] if I was a land owner,
I know what I would think of the county.
[1:04:20] And I don't want to hold them to it. I
think the 27,000 is eight people out of
[1:04:26] the 10.
If we go to the 10, it's 22,000
[1:04:32] and change.
[clears throat]
[1:04:37] » Councelor Bigger and I counc
uh uh why would you feel that they'd be
[1:04:44] questioning us?
[1:04:48] It's almost it's a lot more than what
their neighbors cost to put water in.
[1:04:54] They know what the other water costs.
>> But
[1:04:57] » yeah,
>> I mean I I I know when we put our well
[1:05:01] in it was $30,000. That was 20 years.
>> Just go the well. It was less than
[1:05:05] $10,000.
No, see it.
[1:05:10] » You don't know how far you have to go
down. Like I had we had to go to far
[1:05:12] ways but it is very expensive now.
>> Yeah. The wells aren't like I just
[1:05:18] drilled one.
>> That's
[1:05:21] » you must add a subsidy.
>> If you wanted to lay stay at the 27 and
[1:05:26] we can have just laughter. I I'll be
good with that.
[1:05:31] » Els
don't like I don't think we would be
[1:05:36] considered the laughingstock. the people
that moved out there knew what the water
[1:05:39] situation was the day they moved there.
Like why would that's their choice. Like
[1:05:45] you know if you're going to, you know,
we looked at buying an acreage for a son
[1:05:49] and the first thing we did is what was a
well test, right? Like the very first
[1:05:52] thing we did. So I I don't think that
[snorts] shaming people who have
[1:05:58] questions about it is healthy. It's like
it just doesn't seem like
[1:06:04] I I know for sure there's people I have
rateayers and in not just my area that
[1:06:09] don't want to subsidize it. So I like
the 27,000.
[1:06:14] » There's um some costs involved there
that are higher than normal because it
[1:06:18] has to be engineered as per the
regulations. It has to be checked. It
[1:06:22] has to be flushed. It has to be
chlorinated because there's more than
[1:06:25] one user on there. We've been told this
before. Um and that doesn't come that
[1:06:30] comes at a cost and that is something we
have to do. If it's a one hookup it's a
[1:06:35] different thing which WRC does and um
they can have supervisors different
[1:06:40] levels of supervisors. Good morning sir.
Um come in but uh that's where the
[1:06:45] difference is
and the size and having some
[1:06:49] capabilities in there. So, we're looking
for the master schedule fees bylaw for
[1:06:54] first reading.
[1:06:58] » I'll move that council approves first
reading of master schedule of fees bylaw
[1:07:02] 2026-17.
>> Thank you. Motion on the floor. Any
[1:07:05] discussion?
All question.
[1:07:29] That's carried. Councelor Clayton,
>> just a a question maybe to
[1:07:35] administration, but
if there's been wells drilled in that
[1:07:42] area recently,
there should be a cost uh that we can
[1:07:47] actually find out
uh to establish the number that uh
[1:07:53] that's in uh in this fee schedule.
27,000. I know I've drilled wells for
[1:08:00] depends on the depth of how far you go
just how much it's going to cost.
[1:08:05] So if there is some wells that are
drilled in an area to get a current cost
[1:08:09] estimate I think that would be maybe one
that you could use. Thank you
[1:08:18] » Ker.
For me
[1:08:22] there's water there and it's not a well.
They're not wanting a well.
[1:08:28] I don't think you'll drill a well and
get water. It's in a coal mine.
[1:08:35] A good thought, but
I don't think we want to compare it to
[1:08:40] wells. We don't want to compare it to to
50 or 60,000 it costs over the hill.
[1:08:46] This is what it costs here. The water
lines there. What's it cost to put a
[1:08:52] pipe in the ground and hook it up and
leave it go at that? We're we're we're
[1:08:58] not bar shopping here.
>> Thanks for the thought, though.
[1:09:04] » Yeah. No, it's just a curious question
in my head because uh if there was an
[1:09:09] answer, I wouldn't mind hearing it.
That's all. Thank you. Just for a little
[1:09:14] history, Rosebud went through the same
thing years ago, 30 years ago,
[1:09:21] they drilled three wells to get water.
They drilled a mile and a half away up
[1:09:27] in the hills up on top of the hill.
There's three wells up there the county
[1:09:32] own now. And that's where they got their
water from. There was no water in
[1:09:36] Rosebud in that valley. And they went
through the same thing. This water well
[1:09:42] that got cemented in was drilled on top
of the hill
[1:09:48] and uh was no good.
So it's a bad place for water. It's hit
[1:09:56] paper. People have sued in Canada for
it. It's got a long, long history. And
[1:10:03] believe me, there's no water there.
>> That answer the question. There's no
[1:10:08] wells.
>> Yeah. There's no wells. Yeah.
[1:10:13] Looking for second reading. Anyone want
to put it on the table?
[1:10:18] Councelor Clayton.
>> I move that council approve second
[1:10:24] reading of bylaw 2026-17.
>> Thank you. Motion's on the floor. Any
[1:10:30] discussion? I will call a question.
[1:10:44] That's carried.
I'll move for permission. Councelor
[1:10:48] Caster motion to grant permission to
hold third and final reading. Motion on
[1:10:54] the floor. This again has to have
unanimous unanimous support to continue.
[1:10:58] I'll call a question.
[1:11:15] That's carried unanimously.
[1:11:21] » We'll move uh third and final reading
2026-17.
[1:11:26] » Thank you. Motion's on the floor. Any
discussion on the final?
[1:11:31] I'll call a question.
[1:11:40] That's carried. Thank you, councel. Um,
we have a 10:00 appointment. RCMP
[1:11:45] representative from Drumhower
Detachment, Christian Lafleur,
[1:11:50] Detachment Commander.
[1:11:53] Good morning.
>> Good morning. My apologies for being
[1:11:57] late. I was hit with a HR issue I had to
deal with as I was
[1:12:01] » all right. We were getting through some
stuff. It worked out fine.
[1:12:03] » Awesome.
[1:12:07] » Um,
so the biggest news in the letter is
[1:12:12] we're switching our vehicles from what
you see now, the Hall vehicle to the
[1:12:16] black and white. I don't anticipate,
well, I'm hoping to get one soon cuz one
[1:12:21] of my vehicle is mileing out pretty
quick and it's kind of a lemon. However,
[1:12:26] I was told that probably not this year.
So, but they look sharp from what I'm
[1:12:31] told in the pictures I've seen. So,
hopefully soon.
[1:12:34] » You're going from just the white to
black and white version.
[1:12:36] » They'll be black and white. So, the main
the main doors, if you want, will be u
[1:12:41] white. The rest will be black.
>> So, similar to CPS.
[1:12:46] » Yeah, we're going back to I'm just
thankful that we didn't go back to the
[1:12:50] old blue and white cuz those were ugly.
>> Yes, they were.
[1:12:54] » Yes.
So, it looks it should look sharp. The
[1:12:58] other thing that's not on there uh it'll
be covered on the next uh quarterly
[1:13:02] report, but we're also starting the
switch over to new guns, the Glock 45.
[1:13:08] So, I have one guy already that's uh
been trained on it. He's a trainer. As
[1:13:14] we progress, you're going to you're
going to see people switching from the
[1:13:19] Smith and Wesson to the Glock. that
comes with red dot the optics as well as
[1:13:24] a integrated flashlight.
So hopefully nobody's dumb enough to do
[1:13:29] a traffic stop and needing the
flashlight as other police force have
[1:13:34] done.
[1:13:39] Uh moving on to the priorities, the
first priority being the road safety.
[1:13:45] We've uh emphasized that since I took
over. We've issued 395 traffic tickets.
[1:13:53] Uh in addition to the those tickets, 26
warnings were issued. Uh 213 of those
[1:14:00] were speeding tickets.
Um
[1:14:05] um once well once monthly I'm going to
switch to uh twice monthly soon. We're
[1:14:11] doing overtime traffic shift. So, I'm
paying somebody to come in on overtime
[1:14:16] with
basically the duties of just
[1:14:21] track speeders and issue traffic
tickets. There's a threshold that uh
[1:14:25] they have to meet. So, for me to bring
in a constable and overtime it cost me
[1:14:30] about roughly $100 an hour. I want them
to exceed that uh once after the
[1:14:37] revenues are going back to municipality.
So, for example, if you're costing me
[1:14:42] 500, I expect $1,000 in tickets to make
up for the city or the the county's
[1:14:48] paying for your overtime shift. So, each
shift is paying for itself, but it has a
[1:14:54] big impact because we're getting a lot
of speeders
[1:14:58] amongst other things. In these three
overtime shifts, we generated about
[1:15:03] $10,000 in fines. Again, we're not doing
it as a revenue generator, but I want
[1:15:11] the offset, which is important to me so
you guys don't get uh ripped off. Well,
[1:15:16] not ripped off, but you know what I'm
saying. It doesn't cost you extra money.
[1:15:21] We did uh three checks stop operations
including roving and stationary setup
[1:15:27] ones and that was with our partners like
the county peace officers, the sheriffs
[1:15:34] and so on. We also did two additional
ones just the drum RCMP.
[1:15:43] Um we did um we're I mean we're trying
to get three impaireds minimum a month.
[1:15:49] Obviously that's not up to us. That's up
to the people making bad decisions.
[1:15:56] Uh so in this last quarter we did the
10.
[1:16:01] So so far in this um priority every goal
has been met and surpassed
[1:16:11] priority number two which is crime
reduction through drugs.
[1:16:17] Uh we did 43 search warrant and general
enforcement in regards to drugs.
[1:16:23] Uh we currently have several drug
investigation on a go which obviously I
[1:16:29] can't get into but we're hoping that uh
they're going to be successful. One
[1:16:34] operation led to one of our
better known drug dealer for lack of a
[1:16:38] better term being arrested.
So we were successful in disrupting some
[1:16:43] of the drug operation. We've also seized
uh quite a significant amount of drugs
[1:16:49] that was supposed to go into the the pen
in drum elder.
[1:16:55] Fortunately, we're not allowed to shoot
drones out of the sky or we're not
[1:16:58] allowed to interfere with drones
whatsoever. So, that's the issue.
[1:17:04] » Yeah, we looked at uh I sent two of my
drug investigators to a conference in
[1:17:10] Toronto a few months back. I was hoping
to get some information on what can we
[1:17:16] do, what technologies out there because
there's some pretty cool stuff out
[1:17:19] there. Um, one of them is a anti- drone
drone so that you target the drone, it
[1:17:27] goes and destroys it and comes back. Uh,
the other one was a um setting up a zone
[1:17:33] around the pen that would kill the
signal because they're pre-programmed or
[1:17:37] they're controlled by somebody. Uh, and
the other thing was there's a few other
[1:17:41] things and I was told absolutely not.
Uh, if the drone falls out of the sky
[1:17:46] and hurts somebody, we're liable. I'm
like, okay. Uh, signal blocking. Well,
[1:17:52] somebody has a pacemaker.
Like, okay, well, that's valid.
[1:17:57] Uh, another one was a um that one I like
really because it was cool was it's kind
[1:18:02] of a it's not a rifle, but it kind of
is. and it shoots this thing like a big
[1:18:08] net that will envelope the the drone and
bring it down. Again, if somebody gets
[1:18:13] hurt, we'll liable. So, unfortunately,
there's nothing we can do at this point.
[1:18:17] They won't let us do anything cool or
fun or
[1:18:21] anything. So
[1:18:26] uh we did 23 drug trafficking and
possession arrest and we have uh we
[1:18:32] completed 20 investigation into the drug
smuggling into the the pen. We get those
[1:18:37] in a pen every second day unfortunately.
So pretty common.
[1:18:44] This priority is well on its way to be
surpassed. Um
[1:18:48] my plane close section is consisting of
two people right now. I have three. I
[1:18:53] have a member from Brooks who I'm trying
really hard to keep. Uh Brook's not
[1:18:58] happy with me, but I'm trying to keep
him. Um, he's a go-getter and I have a
[1:19:04] Cracker Jackack team right now, so I'm
happy with that. It doesn't cost DS
[1:19:09] attachment anything. Brooks is paying
for his salary. He's paying for
[1:19:13] everything. So, that's why I'd like to
keep him and keep it that way.
[1:19:16] » That's why.
>> That's exactly. And they can't replace
[1:19:20] him while he's with me. So,
their loss is basically our gain.
[1:19:27] So as a result of having an extra
investigators, we can take on more
[1:19:31] files. So which is working nicely right
now.
[1:19:35] Part of the their duties is obviously
they're all exper the these three people
[1:19:39] are experienced investigators.
I'm getting them to man the rest of the
[1:19:44] junior constables or investigators in
drug files and a few other things as
[1:19:48] well.
[1:19:51] Uh in this quarter we seize just under
$3 million worth of drugs off the
[1:19:57] street. So
[1:20:03] did you want me to prior number three is
visibility engagement community
[1:20:07] relationships.
So we participated in Dia's Saint Indian
[1:20:12] carbon schools lockdown drill. We've
identified some weaknesses and I met
[1:20:18] with them after and try to come up with
some um
[1:20:22] remedials if you want for them.
Obviously, the goal of that is not um as
[1:20:27] I explained to one of the teacher or
we're not showing up lights and siren
[1:20:32] and guns out and everything for those
like like they thought and were that
[1:20:37] we're going to jump out of lockers. No,
the idea is we go there uh as calmly as
[1:20:42] possible and see how they're doing.
We'll knock on a few doors uh if we see
[1:20:47] kids or in a lot of case we hear the
kids laughing so we have discussion
[1:20:51] after so that they have to take it
seriously. It's been wellreceived um
[1:20:56] some of the things in the school
unfortunately there's nothing they can
[1:20:59] do just because of the way the schools
are built but we've coming up with some
[1:21:02] other plans.
We did some uh fraud presentation as
[1:21:07] well as a session on sextortion.
Sextortion being on the rise. It's some
[1:21:16] people think it's a good idea to send
naked pictures online or that uh you
[1:21:21] know in a lot of cases a lonely
50-year-old man sending a naked picture
[1:21:27] to thinks is a nice young girl turns out
to be somebody in India that's not a
[1:21:32] woman but they want money. So, we're
trying to educate people that it's, you
[1:21:37] know, don't put yourself out there type
deal.
[1:21:42] Uh, we did eight media release
sent out to the local uh newspaper.
[1:21:48] However, what I've noticed is that not
since not all of them were published,
[1:21:52] I'm going to transition to a once a
month uh public release unless there's
[1:21:59] something that I feel that we, you know,
like developing crime trends that we
[1:22:03] want to address right away. I'm going to
go to once monthly with a recap of what
[1:22:07] we've done and then some public
interest. Uh we'll see if that works
[1:22:12] better.
However, I've been told by several
[1:22:16] members of the public that uh they
really appreciate knowing what's going
[1:22:20] on their community and what's going on
around town.
[1:22:25] Coffee with a cup by month or once every
two months. Uh I held two. Uh as I
[1:22:32] mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of
uh saying we're going to be at this
[1:22:37] coffee shop at this time on that day. Uh
and a good example is today as I was
[1:22:42] leaving to come here, I got ambushed by
somebody that with something that
[1:22:46] couldn't wait. It looks bad. Uh
especially when we do coffee with a cop,
[1:22:51] people show up and we're late. So in
order to avoid that, we're increasing it
[1:22:56] by going to different place and just
engaging people. We'll evaluate if that
[1:23:01] works better.
[1:23:05] Uh we didn't do any tunnel meeting this
quarter. Again, it's it was too early in
[1:23:10] the year to assess how we're doing the
priorities. So, those come up and the
[1:23:15] idea of that is to see how well we're
doing with priorities in the eyes of the
[1:23:19] public, but also to determine what next
year's priority will be. So, again, it's
[1:23:24] it's a little too early for that.
We attended several meetings of citizen
[1:23:30] on patrol and the rural crime watch. Uh
we have an issue with uh one of the
[1:23:37] local citizen on patrol that decided to
put cameras everywhere.
[1:23:42] So we're dealing with that uh
unfortunately.
[1:23:46] Uh
but overall they're they're doing fine.
[1:23:50] So they were told that first of all if
they want to install camera on county's
[1:23:55] property or town property they need to
get a hold of the count the the council
[1:24:00] and then obviously you can't point your
cameras at somebody's private residence
[1:24:04] or you can't put it uh into capture. So
we're dealing with that. They might get
[1:24:10] um if they don't fall in line they're
probably going to get disbanded.
[1:24:13] Unfortunately,
[1:24:17] uh we had no opportunities this past
quarter for research duties. Uh but we
[1:24:21] didn't however participate in 14 public
events and ceremonies or leading
[1:24:26] parades.
[1:24:29] So with the exception of the town hall
meetings and media releases, all of the
[1:24:32] categories are on track or on their way
to be surpassed again.
[1:24:43] Prior number four was a crime reduction.
This time per property crime.
[1:24:48] So we're now conducting nightly uh
compliance check with the curfews
[1:24:54] conditions and so forth.
Um and it's easy for me to verify that
[1:25:00] every shift my guys are doing a shift
summary. So I know exactly what's going
[1:25:05] on. So is the everybody else in the
attachment. So intelligence gathered is
[1:25:09] increasing.
Uh those led to 27 breach charges.
[1:25:18] We did uh one street sweep one round up
for lack of a better term. I didn't like
[1:25:24] the result. Again um most of the people
that we have on warrants are either
[1:25:29] living out of area or
um not when we get them. So to remedy
[1:25:35] that, I instructed my guys to do
targeted street sweeps. So we know this
[1:25:40] guy is going to be home at that time. Go
pick him up. So that's been successful
[1:25:45] and that's led to 18 uh arrest.
[1:25:51] Fraud and emerging emerging crime trends
lectures. So again, sexion has been a
[1:25:58] big one. It seems to be on the rise. Um
we did some internet child exploitation.
[1:26:04] We had some issues with that as well.
Some presentations on that and some
[1:26:07] frauds. These seems to be very constant.
Um I guess it's human nature that if
[1:26:14] there's a way that in their mind that oh
I'm going to be rich. So cryptocurrency
[1:26:19] and stuff like that around rise.
Unfortunately
[1:26:22] uh those are usually out of country. So
there's not much that the local
[1:26:26] detachment can do.
Um, [snorts]
[1:26:32] we also did the informal
fraud pres discussions and sextortion
[1:26:39] presentation during those coffee breaks
with the cop. So that seemed to be a
[1:26:43] concern.
So again, um overall the detachment is
[1:26:48] either surpassing or well on its way to
meet and surpass every targets
[1:26:54] except for the impaired because again
that's
[1:26:58] as much as we try. We can't convince
people to go and drink and drive or not
[1:27:04] to I should say.
So I'm reorganizing
[1:27:10] the the way that the dash is being run.
It's taking longer than I would have
[1:27:15] liked, but it is what it is. My goal is
to have my officers freed from from a
[1:27:20] lot of the admin duties and out on the
road more. Um, in a lot of cases, I'm
[1:27:25] not very popular with them because if I
walk around and you've been at your desk
[1:27:29] too long, get out. They don't like that.
But my goal is to have them on the road
[1:27:33] doing their job and not tied up with the
different processes.
[1:27:39] So Dian Min is being cross trainined
right now. Uh when I took over with my
[1:27:46] foreign men, they were very much this is
my silo of knowledge. This is what I'm
[1:27:52] doing. I didn't like that. So now I've
instituted cross trainining. So every
[1:27:57] one of my admin people will be able to
do everybody's job. And then the next
[1:28:03] step is now you're taking on some of the
duties that uniform members had to do.
[1:28:08] That'll be your job and that frees them
to go on the road. So,
[1:28:16] did you want me to go through committee
consultation or
[1:28:21] » West council want? No, we're good. We
got we got everything in front of us.
[1:28:25] So, we kind of read through it too as we
go along and just hit the highlights.
[1:28:28] It' be great.
>> Okay. Um, yeah, like I said, the
[1:28:31] lockdown drill we did um
real crime wash in this case. It's
[1:28:38] ongoing.
[1:28:44] Some my members went and got in the face
by dodgeball. That was fun.
[1:28:58] That's basically the most of the
highlights right now for my rural
[1:29:02] members. I have no vacancies. I do have
one vacancy
[1:29:07] for municipal that I've been trying to
fill. Uh we'll see how that goes. I'm
[1:29:12] also
uh proposing a um staffing increase to
[1:29:17] get a sergeant. My as an upsense co so
my goal would be right now is
[1:29:24] if you come in as a constable you can
get promoted to corporal but if you want
[1:29:28] to get promoted sergeant you have to go
somewhere else and then come back as a
[1:29:32] staff sergeant. I'd like to have
continuity cuz most of the guys I have
[1:29:36] like it around here so much they don't
want to leave unfortunately they have to
[1:29:40] if so with this extra position it allows
me two things it allows me to keep them
[1:29:46] and retain them all the way up to staff
sergeant and the other thing is
[1:29:53] with the addition of a opsencio sergeant
my two corporals now become what they're
[1:29:59] supposed to be which is road supervisors
So they would mentor the constables and
[1:30:04] they would be out on the road taking
files themselves a lot more. All
[1:30:08] supervisory duties would be spread
between myself and the sergeant position
[1:30:13] versus now between myself and the two
corporals. So there's a lot of benefits
[1:30:18] but you know that comes at a cost. So
that's discussion I'm having right now.
[1:30:27] when you look at the crime statistic, I
know it's been in the news that um you
[1:30:33] know, crime is down, um crime index is
lower and everything. The thing to keep
[1:30:38] that to keep in mind with that is in a
small area like us,
[1:30:43] I mean, you have one sexual assault,
well, your index just shoots right up,
[1:30:49] right? Because normally we don't have
one. Same with murders or anything like
[1:30:52] that. So
[1:30:56] a shift in one or two creates a huge
impact for a crime scene index. So just
[1:31:01] let's keep that in mind that it's not
really uh [snorts] we don't have a huge
[1:31:06] problem. Like I I was told that
um well you're asking for more members.
[1:31:11] Well, you know, if we could see people
getting shot in the street and like all
[1:31:14] this like we'd be more supportive, but
we don't see that. I'm like that's
[1:31:18] because we're doing a good job to avoid
that. So, it reflects on this and
[1:31:24] there's numbers we can't uh control.
Example, the murder, right? Like we have
[1:31:29] one murder and all of a sudden like
we're up 100%. It's cuz we haven't had a
[1:31:33] murder in a couple years. So,
any questions?
[1:31:39] » Uh, thank you. Any questions? Councelor
Larson and Councelor
[1:31:43] HS.
try and keep it brief because I know you
[1:31:45] have things to do, but can you just tell
me the like the drug seizures and the
[1:31:50] and the arrests and enforcement. How
what what would be the percentage of
[1:31:56] actual in drumheller and then rural?
>> You [snorts] don't have to give me the
[1:32:00] exact number, but just ballpark it for
me. Is it like 60 40 or something like
[1:32:05] that? It would be more um I would say
probably 80% in drum
[1:32:10] » in the area and then rural a little bit
but not as much nowhere near as much.
[1:32:14] » So are the drones then coming primarily
>> drum?
[1:32:21] Okay, never mind.
>> We have a we have a project on that
[1:32:25] right now.
>> No worries.
[1:32:26] » So yeah,
>> I understand completed. Thank you.
[1:32:31] » You're welcome, Councelor Clayton.
Okay.
[1:32:36] Years ago, we had a rural crime watch
around Strathmore and well almost all
[1:32:42] the neighbors were part of rural crime
watch, but it's
[1:32:48] kind of disappeared in our area.
>> Mhm.
[1:32:51] » And it doesn't seem to be uh something
that is promoted.
[1:32:56] Is that u something that uh has to be
done through you guys or ho how does it
[1:33:04] get back on track if it's value to you?
>> Well, there's a lot of value to it for
[1:33:09] sure. Um I had one started in uh Fort
Mclau when I was there for the Willow
[1:33:16] Creek area, but it has to be citizen
driven. Will assist, but there's an
[1:33:21] organization that helps set it up. Um,
from what I understand, I want to say
[1:33:28] last month, a little while ago, they had
a uh a meeting held in Drum Miller with
[1:33:33] the idea of recruit people and I don't
think anybody showed up.
[1:33:38] So, unless there's a lot of crime and
they feel impacted by it, um, community
[1:33:43] involvement is not that great. uh we can
promote it as much as we want but if
[1:33:48] people don't then uh the bad thing about
it is um
[1:33:54] every
large area in Willow Creek if you want
[1:33:59] they were on this system on their cell
phones and say for example we're looking
[1:34:03] for a stolen truck we'd let them know
and they would yeah he's right here so
[1:34:09] we had real life information so yes real
crime watch is very important to us but
[1:34:13] we can't twist people's arms Same with
citizen on patrol. Seems that we're
[1:34:18] going into a phase where
less and less people want to get
[1:34:22] involved.
[1:34:26] But if anybody wants to start one, we'll
be more than happy to help.
[1:34:32] » Councor,
thanks for the presentation. So with the
[1:34:36] drones like you know and and going to
the pen, do they do they crash the drone
[1:34:41] or do they fly it back away? Because you
would think that like I'm Do you need us
[1:34:47] to advocate to our MP to maybe set up
the pen like you would an airport?
[1:34:55] » Mhm. Well, they I mean it is kind of sad
because it's a no-fly zone, right? So,
[1:34:59] we do have sensors that let us know when
there's a drone uh and then we try to
[1:35:04] go. Uh usually, you're right, like we
don't typically recover drones. we
[1:35:09] recover the packages that they drop
before or we get the inmates with them,
[1:35:14] right? Um
I'm there I have no power to say like to
[1:35:20] to try to affect it maybe on your hand
to start
[1:35:24] at this level and then try to push it
forward. Um for example like I I did a
[1:35:29] tour of the the pen and I've identified
several weaknesses when I discuss it
[1:35:36] with a pen. One of them, for example,
was you have blank areas where your
[1:35:41] cameras don't capture. Why can't you put
cameras there? Oh, no. Because if we put
[1:35:46] more camera, we become like a higher
level of security and we we're not
[1:35:50] allowed to do that. And I'm like, great.
Okay. So, there's a lot of issues that
[1:35:56] unfortunately it's way way above my
head. So I can make suggestions but none
[1:36:03] of them are listened to. Right.
Welcome.
[1:36:09] » Thank you very
Thank you very much. Uh any other
[1:36:12] questions?
[1:36:16] » A motion to accept for information.
Someone
[1:36:19] » also move.
>> Motion on the floor. Any discussion?
[1:36:23] I'll call a question.
>> Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thanks.
[1:36:32] Then after this, we'll take a 10-minute
break.
[1:36:38] We'll be back at uh 10:46.
[1:36:49] » Back.
>> We're back to council weight county
[1:36:53] regular meeting agenda and we're on item
five, consent agenda. So here's the
[1:36:58] point where if anybody wants something
pulled out to discuss, please speak now
[1:37:02] or for forever hold your peace.
Is there anything anyone wants to pull
[1:37:07] out to discuss further?
[1:37:11] Um I have a couple. I think we should
talk about Drumheller Health Foundation.
[1:37:16] Uh was a thank you for donation that we
provided and they asked if we want to do
[1:37:20] a photo. I was wondering if we should
discuss whether anybody has um
[1:37:28] capacity to go up to get a photo done. I
don't know if they would come here. That
[1:37:32] would be ideal. But maybe we could um
initiate conversation about that. Um
[1:37:40] » then uh we should talk about
a letter from WHMB.
[1:37:47] » Okay.
5.1.
[1:37:51] » Um,
I'd like to also pull out the letter
[1:37:55] from Alice James, counselor at MD of Big
Horn.
[1:38:00] So I think we should uh
>> give
[1:38:04] » 511
>> uh 5.11
[1:38:09] » and then also Strathmore Chamber of
Commerce 5.13.
[1:38:19] Anyone else?
I think we should add 5.14 as well.
[1:38:24] » Yeah.
[1:38:28] I'll make a motion to bring those items.
Sorry.
[1:38:31] » Uh to the chair, administration is
requesting to pull item 5.7 from the
[1:38:35] consent agenda for the purpose of
providing a verbal fire services update
[1:38:39] as part of the community and development
services report. Just the community
[1:38:43] development.
>> Thank you. So we're looking at 57, 58,
[1:38:48] 510, 511, 513, and 514.
[1:39:01] Deputy Ree, are you making that motion?
>> I will make the motion to remove those
[1:39:06] items.
>> Perfect.
[1:39:08] Motion on the floor before I call.
Anyone else have anything else to pull
[1:39:12] out?
Okay. Call a question
[1:39:18] or do we vote on Yeah.
[1:39:25] And that's carried.
5.7 is first and that's administration
[1:39:29] update.
>> Should we first make a motion to approve
[1:39:32] the rest of the consent agenda?
>> Oh yes,
[1:39:34] » you can make that motion. [laughter]
>> I always do that.
[1:39:38] » She always grips.
>> Yes, I know. [laughter]
[1:39:44] Ask my wife. They don't learn easy
[1:39:51] motion on the floor to approve the rest
and waiting for.
[1:40:13] So we have the second motion on the
screen.
[1:40:16] Call. Question is called.
Please vote.
[1:40:27] » That's carried. Go ahead. This is item
5.7.
[1:40:33] Thank you. I've asked So, this will be
um in relation to the fire services
[1:40:39] update in the community and development
services report. In addition, I have
[1:40:43] three items that I'd like to discuss.
First is an update on the timelines for
[1:40:47] transition of fire dispatch to Calgary
911. Second is timing on programming
[1:40:53] radio channel scanning on the Afra
radios. And then a discussion on
[1:40:58] concerns related to radio coverage and
out of range alerts. Uh it is our
[1:41:03] understanding that there has been some
counselors contacted with some concerns.
[1:41:07] So we are just providing an update so
everyone has the same information as
[1:41:11] well as the public as well. So the first
is the transition to Calgary 911.
[1:41:17] Council will recall that the transition
target date was scheduled for November
[1:41:22] 30th, 2026. The revised go live date
will now be December 8th, 2026. It could
[1:41:29] be sooner, but that is the date we're
working towards now. The additional time
[1:41:33] was required in order to get all the
contracts signed between the regional
[1:41:38] partners. So, Wheatland County, the
villages of Standard, Husar, and Rocky
[1:41:42] View. All of that has been completed.
Sorry,
[1:41:46] » Rocky Ford.
>> My apologies. Did I say Rocky View?
[1:41:49] » Yes. [laughter]
[1:41:52] » You know, I've been trying really hard
not to do that. [laughter]
[1:41:56] Rocky Fard, my apologies. U So, the
villages have all signed their
[1:42:01] contracts. So that is complete. Uh this
is a significant operational change that
[1:42:07] includes confirming how the calls will
be received, sent to local fire
[1:42:11] departments, making sure dispatchers
have accurate information about the
[1:42:15] local roads, addresses, fire resources,
and response procedures. updating and
[1:42:20] testing the radio settings, testing
communications between dispatch and fire
[1:42:25] crews, and ensuring that the fire
departments and the rural fire
[1:42:28] associations know what to expect when
the new service begins.
[1:42:32] Uh so to achieve this, administration
continues to work with Calgary 911,
[1:42:37] Telus, Aphra, IT, fire services, and the
fire associations on the necessary
[1:42:43] programming and testing. Uh the December
8th date will also guide the timing for
[1:42:47] related radio programming work including
the review of channel scanning and other
[1:42:52] confirmed programming requirements which
brings me to the second part of the
[1:42:56] update which is radio channel scanning.
So channel scanning would this allows a
[1:43:03] radio to monitor more than one assigned
channel or talk group. So for example, a
[1:43:08] firefighter may be operating on their
assigned fire channel but would also be
[1:43:12] able to hear traffic on another approved
channel that is relevant to the
[1:43:15] response. This was not initially done as
part of the original
[1:43:21] transition to Aphra as that scanning is
not generally recommended without a
[1:43:27] defined operational need because it can
affect radio system capacity and put a
[1:43:32] strain on the system. So, AFRA is
clarifying its policy, looking at which
[1:43:37] configurations may be permitted and what
can be supported technically. Uh, there
[1:43:43] have been some requests from some of the
fire associations to enable this
[1:43:47] capability. So, this is being reviewed
as part of the Calgary 911 transition
[1:43:52] because it is a fairly complex, costly
process. So, doing it once is more
[1:43:57] advisable. So that will be looked at and
communicated with uh with the fire
[1:44:01] associations and the departments through
the chief's meetings and through the
[1:44:04] different channels we have of
communication.
[1:44:08] And then the the third item I wanted to
update on was radio coverage and out of
[1:44:13] range alerts. So this is when a radio is
potentially out of range, it makes a
[1:44:19] tone. It's an audible warning from the
radio that says I'm basically I may not
[1:44:24] work. I could be out of range and I
might not be able to connect you with
[1:44:28] dispatch or with uh the other crews. And
that is a a safety issue. It's intended
[1:44:34] to warn the firefighter that your radio
may not work.
[1:44:39] There have been some concerns raised
with cert in certain areas with certain
[1:44:44] fire associations that the warning tone
sounds repeatedly and and is frustrating
[1:44:49] and quite disruptive especially when the
radios are taken with someone and not
[1:44:55] stored in the hall. Uh so the request
has been to disable the alert or make it
[1:45:00] optional. Um administration understands
the concern. However, this is an
[1:45:05] important safety feature. It's the
firefighter's primary link to dispatch
[1:45:10] incident command and other crews when
they're on an incident.
[1:45:14] So, if a firefighter is in an area with
weak coverage, they may not be able to
[1:45:18] receive instructions or safety
information, confirm their location or
[1:45:22] assignment, call for additional
resources, or call for help in an
[1:45:26] emergency. So, the out of range tone
warns them of that risk.
[1:45:31] » [gasps]
>> So administration believes that this
[1:45:34] should remain enabled as a life safety
feature and it's not simply whether the
[1:45:39] tones inconvenient, it's whether you can
be warned that the system is reliable.
[1:45:44] So uh some ways that we propose to
address this concern is through
[1:45:49] practical safety focused measures rather
than removing the warning feature. So,
[1:45:54] this would include identifying regular
radio storage locations, encouraging uh
[1:46:00] responders to use the primary method,
which is the Inet app on your phone or
[1:46:05] your computer. That will work with
Wi-Fi, it will also work with data. So,
[1:46:10] the coverage is uh much more inclusive
than the radios. So, you get your call
[1:46:15] there, you go to the hall, you get your
radio, and that's what you use on the
[1:46:18] incident. And then we have mobile
repeaters that can go with the trucks.
[1:46:23] um and exploring practical signal
improvement options. We did do some
[1:46:27] testing. The fire chief went out as well
as our senior IT people to do some
[1:46:33] testing um in the Rosebud area because
this is an area I think as you all know
[1:46:37] has difficulty with uh coverage and on
the day of testing the the the radios
[1:46:43] were working and and they showed good
signal. However, the weather was good
[1:46:46] that day. So, it it could be different
if the weather is not as good. So
[1:46:52] administration has advised the fire
halls and the rural fire associations
[1:46:56] that a practical interim approach is to
store the radio where it remains
[1:46:59] accessible but doesn't cause unnecessary
disruption and when it's not in service
[1:47:05] um use the primary inet uh notification
and so we'll continue to work with the
[1:47:10] associations and the relevant technical
partners to continue to identify any
[1:47:14] practical solutions. Um, however, the
solution must preserve firefighter
[1:47:20] safety, be technical fe technically
feasible and meet Aphro's requirements.
[1:47:25] So, in closing, those are my updates and
we're happy to take any questions. Thank
[1:47:30] you.
>> Thank you. Any questions? I I have one
[1:47:33] suggestion that what that briefing that
you have, if you could send that to us
[1:47:37] directly. Yeah. All council. So, if we
do get a call, which we probably will,
[1:47:41] we have something to refer back to.
>> Certainly.
[1:47:44] » I'm I'm I have a memory, but it's not
that good. that I might try to say
[1:47:48] something that's not proper.
>> Certainly, I'm happy to share that with
[1:47:51] » Hester.
[1:47:54] And just a question, when you're looking
for solutions, you've got areas in the
[1:48:00] county that are identified as being weak
on being able to keep contact with the
[1:48:05] radios already.
Why not proactively
[1:48:10] get a repeater
repeaters put in those areas at a
[1:48:14] standard practice?
>> I'll let Mr. Adamson
[1:48:20] » I believe we're doing that already.
>> Yeah. So uh through the chair uh the
[1:48:24] system is run by the uh provincial ax
program and so uh they do they they can
[1:48:29] work us with us on some temporary
solutions in specific areas and we are
[1:48:33] we have communication dialogue open with
them on things that we can do. We do
[1:48:37] expect to bring some uh report back to
council at some point here regarding
[1:48:42] perhaps rosebud. Uh but I think a key
thing to just note about coverage and
[1:48:46] I've looked at their coverage maps, it's
uh a lot like if if we compare to our
[1:48:52] old system, it is generally a lot better
coverage than what we had before. Uh the
[1:48:57] the coverage might have changed, but
it's a lot better in general overall.
[1:49:00] But the areas like Rosebud and some of
these un lowlying areas um is they don't
[1:49:06] they they they just don't guarantee the
portable signal. But the mobile one
[1:49:11] that's in the vehicles still are
supposed to work in those areas. So just
[1:49:15] just a key point on on the um uh signal
quality. Uh and as we did some testing
[1:49:22] uh we were able to get a 5x5 signal all
on everywhere that we went on the
[1:49:27] eastern side. Again it was uh the
weather was great. Uh the only thing is
[1:49:33] is that weather can affect the
attenuation of radio signals of course
[1:49:36] right? So there might be some some
changes or in buildings of course they
[1:49:40] can't guarantee radio signal in a
building due to the the structure of the
[1:49:44] building and various other stuff that
would be out of Ara's control but uh but
[1:49:48] they were working when we when we did
test them but we do understand the
[1:49:51] challenges there for sure. So
>> quick followup that test was it handheld
[1:49:56] or a truck mount?
>> Uh through the chair of both.
[1:49:59] » Okay.
>> We did both the the invehicle one as the
[1:50:02] and the handheld one
>> and the handheld 5x5 too. We had uh
[1:50:07] through the chair we had handheld 5x5
inside the we went inside the theater
[1:50:13] and right into the middle of the
theater. We did it in the merkantile
[1:50:16] building and we did it along the roads
where we saw like there was no it
[1:50:21] actually didn't have any bars and you
would think it doesn't work but we were
[1:50:24] getting 5x5 with no bars. We only had
one spot where we where we ended up
[1:50:28] getting that that out of tone signal
which was in the far east of the county
[1:50:33] in a really kind of windy little valley
that came came up from the special areas
[1:50:38] side of it and but it was about a fivem
minute spot in there that it made that
[1:50:43] tone.
Thank you councelor Caster.
[1:50:50] Just curious, did you take firefighter
with you when you were testing the
[1:50:54] radios
>> uh through the chair? We went with uh
[1:50:58] with it, myself and with our fire chief.
So, he was able to take us through
[1:51:03] through the different areas. We didn't
have a firefighter
[1:51:07] » through the reef to councelor Kra. They
were requested to the first time when
[1:51:12] they gave all of the sites where there
were gabs um they were asked to go out
[1:51:17] to help confirm them and they didn't go.
So it was individually and then the team
[1:51:22] went out but they did not wish to um go
out at the same time and that request
[1:51:28] and invitation is still open to them
that they can go out with staff.
[1:51:32] » Yeah, that's a shame.
Uh,
[1:51:37] I got a question about the changeover
and it's about all 911.
[1:51:46] So, there's a fee we pay on our cell
phone
[1:51:51] for 911 coverage
and that fee is paid out
[1:51:59] to who?
I through the reef to council. So that
[1:52:04] is a provincial fee and it's collected.
Telus collects that or it could be
[1:52:09] Rogers Rogers.
>> Yeah. And so there is a grant program
[1:52:14] under that PAP and it goes to which
we've all identified as our PAP um is
[1:52:21] Calgary 911. So that grant money that
comes from that goes to will go to
[1:52:25] Calgary 911 at the moment until December
8th whatever that transition it stays
[1:52:31] with WDMSA and then going forward once
we the Telus goes to switches over the
[1:52:37] PAP it'll then go to our new service
provider but it's a provincial funding
[1:52:44] » not 100% up on it there is the grant
from the province and I don't know if
[1:52:52] there's a direct payment from Telus or
not to uh
[1:52:58] or Rogers
[1:53:02] because I know there's a municipality
receiving 911 dispatch
[1:53:08] from Rogers
and has been.
[1:53:13] And I'm just wondering is that going to
go switch over to Calgary or are they
[1:53:17] going to keep keep it as they have in
the past?
[1:53:23] you know anything about it?
>> No, I cannot speak to that. All I can
[1:53:27] speak to is that it is a funding that
the county doesn't see that money goes
[1:53:33] directly to our PAP provider.
>> And I believe and I don't know if it's
[1:53:39] through Telus or if it went proventually
at that. I can't answer who's who
[1:53:44] actually sends that money to the
municipality or the fire service
[1:53:49] provider. that's designated as the PAP.
>> Okay. So, when you're signing these
[1:53:54] contracts, I was getting at there's not
a specific line about transferring this
[1:54:00] uh this grant money or no payment.
>> No, the in the contracts which um all of
[1:54:06] us including the villages, we identify
who our fire dispatch service provider
[1:54:11] is in our PAP and then who coordinates
the technical aspects on the county's
[1:54:17] behalf, which would be Calgary 911. But
it doesn't say where that funding goes.
[1:54:21] I would assume that's an administrative
thing with Telus.
[1:54:27] » Yeah. Through the chair. Um I don't know
too much about the infrastructure, but
[1:54:30] uh I think it would be safe to say as
well as Telus has specific
[1:54:34] infrastructure to be able to support
like for instance when you go in SOS
[1:54:38] offline mode, you can still dial us. So
there is is infrastructure that isn't
[1:54:42] covered by PAF that that uh that I would
assume that that those fees would help
[1:54:47] supply those when like Telus or whatever
collects those fees, but we can't speak
[1:54:51] to what comes to towards a PAP or even a
municipality. So we're not sure of that
[1:54:56] though.
>> Okay.
[1:54:59] Are different telephone companies like
Rogers?
[1:55:07] Yeah.
Thank you.
[1:55:11] » Any other questions?
I just want to follow up. Um, you
[1:55:16] mentioned the Inet and how people take
their radios home and I just want to
[1:55:20] give some feedback that I heard cuz I
was one of the people that got a call
[1:55:23] and I actually went out and talked to
some. So,
[1:55:27] it was explained to me that the Inet
function um is is great, but when
[1:55:32] they're responding, they're usually, you
know, could be 15 minutes from a hall.
[1:55:35] They prefer not to be on a phone driving
and seeing what's going on. And totally
[1:55:39] makes sense. That's why they they were
looking for a that's why they take the
[1:55:43] radios home because while they're
responding, they can hear instead of
[1:55:48] looking at a phone. And I as a safety
feature, I totally understand that
[1:55:52] because you number one, it's illegal to
drive and look at your and try to take a
[1:55:56] text. So that's the feedback you're
getting. So they're looking for
[1:55:58] information. Now maybe there's a way
that um the Inet can be audible. I don't
[1:56:05] know, something like that. Just some
feedback that I heard and it made sense.
[1:56:08] So, I just thought I'd bring that
forward. Yeah. I don't know if it's
[1:56:11] possible or anything like that, but
that's that's why they say that. Go
[1:56:14] ahead.
>> Yeah. Through the chair, we're uh we're
[1:56:16] actually working with Inet. We're going
to be having a meeting hopefully pretty
[1:56:19] soon with them with some suggestions and
that was a great suggestion as well. We
[1:56:22] can add.
>> Yeah. Just something, you know, a brief
[1:56:25] maybe it's a paragraph the scene, you
know, whatever information they need to
[1:56:28] just keep repeating it so people can
focus on driving. The last thing I want
[1:56:31] to have is somebody with a phone in
their hand looking at something and hit
[1:56:35] a ditch or t-bone somebody when they're
trying to help somebody else, but
[1:56:39] totally understandable.
Um, anything else on this before we move
[1:56:44] on?
Thank you for the information. I mean,
[1:56:48] there is a lot of I mean, I've said to a
lot of people, nobody likes change.
[1:56:51] Change is difficult. Um, and I know that
uh administration is doing their best to
[1:56:57] negotiate the change and there's things
that we don't see and sounds like you
[1:57:01] guys are working with it. There's a lot
of assumptions out there. I know that
[1:57:04] there's a lot of misinformation and
that's why I asked for that information
[1:57:07] to come directly to us. Will it be
debated? Most likely because it's when
[1:57:12] it gets down to actual operators, there
seems to be a difference of opinion. So,
[1:57:17] I'm hoping we can get through that.
Uh, 5.8 8h hour and health foundation
[1:57:26] deputy reveal priest.
[1:57:31] » So it was nice to receive a thank you
from Dormal Health Foundation for our
[1:57:36] donation towards their
uh grow your own program and they had
[1:57:42] said that they'd be honored to recognize
our support with a photo. Um so I don't
[1:57:47] know whether we could just yeah maybe
Maybe we should reach out to them and
[1:57:53] ask them
uh whether we could just
[1:58:00] do a photo and send it to them of our
council or [laughter]
[1:58:03] I I don't want to do a special trip out
there just to take a picture. But um but
[1:58:09] I think it would be nice to have some
kind of recognition
[1:58:13] for our donation.
Shall I make a motion to administration
[1:58:18] to
>> just do it? Okay. Appreciate that. Thank
[1:58:23] you.
>> So, no motion is needed. We'll reach out
[1:58:26] to him and just see if we can negotiate
some kind of thing. I'm up in the area
[1:58:31] quite often. Um but if once all council,
that's a totally different thing.
[1:58:36] Anything else on that?
Okay. Uh 510.
[1:58:43] So, I just wanted to bring this one
forward too uh just because it's a
[1:58:46] letter um from the chair of WHMB and uh
says on it uh
[1:58:54] continued advocacy um and they wanted to
resubmit their application
[1:59:00] uh to the province for the seniors lodge
application, but I we just we had a
[1:59:05] meeting with the minister and so I
assume that um given the feedback that
[1:59:10] we got, they are likely not going to
submit uh the same application again. Um
[1:59:15] given that the minister had suggested
that uh the cost per door was in fact uh
[1:59:23] higher than uh their other applications
and that um
[1:59:30] and that the ask for 50% of the cost was
more than u the program parameters. So,
[1:59:37] I'm assuming that um there'll be other
new information from the lodge board in
[1:59:44] terms of um
future
[1:59:49] applications. Okay. I just wanted to
bring that up because the letter is in
[1:59:54] our package and so people might read it
and think that uh all systems are go but
[2:00:00] in fact I think I'm hoping that the
Wheatland Housing Management Body will
[2:00:05] uh re-evaluate their their applications
that have been submitted so far.
[2:00:10] [clears throat]
Councelor Ker,
[2:00:14] » as you're aware, we've had an offer for
some help and then talking to with uh
[2:00:22] people that were there.
Some places have actually gone to a bank
[2:00:28] and requested funding, but they're
hoping they're talking with us building
[2:00:34] Canada homes
and uh yeah, they're well of they're
[2:00:40] well aware of why we requested more. We
know they can't give more, but there's
[2:00:47] problems in the communication between
the province and the and the feds.
[2:00:52] That's
it's been the story of my life as a
[2:00:56] farmer all the way through. So, I don't
know what else to say. Yeah, we're we're
[2:01:01] optimistic, but
[2:01:07] Eler,
yeah, like I was actually going to wait
[2:01:11] and discuss this with my um but my recap
of the meeting was is ADM. I mean, it
[2:01:18] was nice that we had all county and town
councils present to start with and and
[2:01:22] you know, some strong representation
from the province. Uh it was nice, you
[2:01:26] know, to hear it direct, you know, not
have to ask secondhand. And, you know,
[2:01:31] we've never yet seen the actual refusal
letter from the province. We just got
[2:01:37] the one that WHMB set out. But anyhow,
ADM Williams said that the bid was our
[2:01:42] bid was 580 89,000 versus about 450,000
desired. And um he used the per bed
[2:01:51] measurement, right? that like that's the
that's the provincial standard and and
[2:01:56] right on our website on our lodge
website it says oh that's misleading
[2:02:00] well not according to ADM Williams like
he's saying outright so um that the
[2:02:06] 589,000 our bid versus 450,000 ADM
Williams desires that's 139,000 per bid
[2:02:14] times 120 beds is $16,680,000
[2:02:19] of course we you know of course we
weren't going to get it Right. Cuz and I
[2:02:23] I believe he said and I'm not sure this
but I think he didn't he say like
[2:02:27] Wildwood was like 375 and it was
different apples to oranges cuz there
[2:02:30] was no elevators and stuff but the fact
that we have wide hallways and and um
[2:02:37] elevators is no different than local
communities that have got a lodge and we
[2:02:41] don't. The other thing he said that you
know I think just need some
[2:02:45] clarification. He said it was the fourth
application. He said the province came
[2:02:49] to help us so that there would not be a
fifth denial. He said they rarely do
[2:02:54] this, right? And so perhaps like you
know perhaps we really should figure out
[2:03:00] whether it's our consultant or our
building committee or our board like we
[2:03:04] I think we need to have a hard look at
what happened like he wasn't talking any
[2:03:08] other bad stuff or no other you know
that we've heard in other past. he said,
[2:03:13] you know, was by the money. Then what
MLA Young said, you know, she was
[2:03:18] dismayed and disappointed that the
province's January 19th, 2026 offer to
[2:03:23] help was rejected. And I had heard that
before we even submitted the bid that
[2:03:29] the province had reached out with an
offer to help. And I don't know who
[2:03:32] rejected it, whether it was our
consultant or our building committee or
[2:03:35] the board. But that's what MLA D. Young
said in the meeting. And then Minister
[2:03:40] Neworf, he didn't, as we all know, he
didn't say too much, but one thing he
[2:03:43] did say, he said the bid at this price
point as presented had no chance of
[2:03:48] passing Treasury.
We're just way high. And it's kind of
[2:03:52] seems it sounds like it's our
responsibility. And so then like how do
[2:03:57] we
how do we get so far like that much
[2:04:01] money offside? Like our board has a
fiduciary duty. So, how could we justify
[2:04:06] in a bid that expensive like 16680
$16,680,000
[2:04:12] high to start with before we get into
cost overruns, which of course we're
[2:04:15] going to get. The next question I got is
is like, are we going to formally notify
[2:04:21] our rate payers that because I got
people asking me and they're like, where
[2:04:24] is the lodge? Like
I think we now know as of August 26th or
[2:04:30] whatever the data that was, but I think
we really should be more transparent
[2:04:34] with our rate peers. Thanks.
[2:04:43] » Keith do not want to answer that
gentleman
[2:04:48] at the moment.
>> Nope.
[2:04:50] » Okay.
I will say I'm unaware of some of your
[2:04:55] allegations that the province offered to
help. That certainly didn't come to the
[2:04:59] board. I can tell you that much.
[2:05:04] » Well, I couldn't say that I heard it at
the right from the ministers there. So,
[2:05:07] I don't know where it came from or where
the where it fell apart.
[2:05:11] » A brief or a ladder. We did take them up
on the debriefing letter.
[2:05:15] » That'd be something we met with. we've
met. Maybe the timing didn't work out,
[2:05:20] but that was done
>> that. So, at least the letter happened
[2:05:24] because otherwise we're saying MLA D
Young is incorrect, right? Like, we're
[2:05:28] not saying that. I'm sure she said it
that day at the meeting and and pe
[2:05:33] people in this council heard it and
people in Strathmore Council heard it.
[2:05:36] So, you know, we better be a little I'd
like to know exactly how it did how like
[2:05:42] so they reached out to us and Okay.
Mr. Hebs,
[2:05:49] I brought up at the meeting
with Mr. Nurov,
[2:05:55] there's several things on when you apply
for a project and you include things.
[2:06:01] One of them was the amount that the
hospice has in there. It's in that
[2:06:06] overall cost of 100
that you're talking about and so is the
[2:06:11] 12% contingency which is over and above
the actual budgeted amount. You take
[2:06:16] those two things out and you reduce your
cost almost down to exactly what they're
[2:06:21] talking about. So it's up to us to work
with Mr. Williams who offered to do that
[2:06:27] and set up a committee to do actually
address those issues
[2:06:32] and [snorts] we can take a good look at
where we can
[2:06:37] meet what the province requires to
proceed. And I think that is exactly
[2:06:43] where we would like to leave it until we
have a chance to do that meeting and
[2:06:47] conduct those kind of conversations to
see where they feel we're out and where
[2:06:53] we can tell them where we're in. I
appreciate that. Thank you,
[2:07:01] » Councelor Ker. And also at the meeting,
they had asked us to form a board to
[2:07:07] work with the province and that they'd
be in touch with myself as being the
[2:07:13] chair when they're going to want to get
together.
[2:07:17] Uh I thought we had a very good
discussion there and and ours
[2:07:24] application is different than other
applications
[2:07:29] and uh we'll work it out. We have the
hospice hooked on. I don't know if
[2:07:34] they're taking it off or or just how
they're doing it, but it's as uh
[2:07:40] counselor Clayton suggests, it just
seems they're including it in there.
[2:07:47] because that's the total on the line.
That's how we filled it out.
[2:07:52] We will take
I think we'll we'll take our suggestions
[2:07:59] from from the ADM assistant and uh and
work with them. That's all we can do.
[2:08:08] The unfortunate thing is when you put in
an application, you're not allowed to
[2:08:14] talk to anybody.
Yeah,
[2:08:17] that's I
you can't talk to the MLAs. You can't
[2:08:22] talk to the people of housing. They they
want to pair
[2:08:28] pair to everybody. So that's their
process. So before they release the next
[2:08:33] round, they're going to come down and
and go through our application, I'm
[2:08:38] guessing.
And uh they've never done it before. and
[2:08:42] they're doing it for us because they see
the need. That's all they said.
[2:08:48] And uh I know there's differences.
We don't have a smoking room and we
[2:08:53] don't have 14 different rooms. We don't
have any of that. I think our square
[2:08:58] footage.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
[2:09:03] Provincial average is 900 square feet
per room and ours was just over by a
[2:09:10] couple feet.
Our square footage is right on the
[2:09:15] money.
The money thing, it needs some work.
[2:09:21] And I don't know, that's all I can say.
I don't know how they're looking at it.
[2:09:26] So when they come down to talk and
compare what they have to what we have,
[2:09:32] then we'll find out. sort of bit black
and white.
[2:09:36] » Can I just ask a a point of
clarification? So, uh, councelor
[2:09:40] Clayton, you mentioned that in the
application to the province for funding,
[2:09:45] we included the hospice, the cost of the
hospice even though they are fully
[2:09:50] funding it.
Just a clarification.
[2:09:55] » So, this is why we've got to get some
clarification on what number they're
[2:09:59] actually using. If you take
the number he gave us at the table
[2:10:04] there, they are using the overall
project cost without removing those
[2:10:09] costs. That's kind of why we've got to
sit and and say, okay, what's included
[2:10:14] in the calculation and what's not
because it's not
[2:10:21] the building is is so close to other
buildings that we've seen that are less
[2:10:29] costly.
uh and I'd like to find out what they're
[2:10:34] using in their overall uh cost per room
is when they're saying we're high or
[2:10:41] low. And that's why the conversation
with Mr. Williams is very important.
[2:10:47] » But why would you have added put in uh
the cost of the hospice if we're not
[2:10:51] they're we're not asking them for
funding. Why would we
[2:10:55] » the
>> It would be confusing for them. It it's
[2:10:58] confusing to a lot of us to tell you the
truth. It wasn't
[2:11:04] the project goes in as an overall cost
from M3, our project manager. And when
[2:11:10] you use
[2:11:15] it's the overall building square footage
is in there, including
[2:11:21] uh what the hospice square footage is.
And if it's not taken out, then you've
[2:11:27] got to ask why. And they were informed
what was in and what's not. But where it
[2:11:34] got down to who was doing the look at it
at the uh review,
[2:11:40] something looks like it was missed. And
that's the first time we've really been
[2:11:46] put in a position to talking about the
cost per door being that high out of out
[2:11:53] of their range. They hadn't come to that
uh conversation with us before. So I get
[2:11:59] that the cost comes from your that is
building the whole building but your
[2:12:05] consultant should have applied only for
the portion where you need the funding
[2:12:12] for not not
>> that's all he was applying for was the
[2:12:16] portion
[2:12:19] the project that uh was presented as an
overall project cost. it. You can't say
[2:12:25] that it's not. It is. But what Derek
Wise did is
[2:12:33] do all the perform based on the lodge
and he took out what
[2:12:39] the hospice area had and but the
contingencies were included in there. So
[2:12:45] that it's hard to say.
[2:12:53] I'm trying to tell you
what I don't know is what they were
[2:12:59] looking at and what they read in Mr.
Wise's application.
[2:13:06] Did they take it out or not? even though
it was reported what was in there in the
[2:13:12] application
and it looks like they didn't. That's
[2:13:16] all I'm saying.
And and you got to present a project as
[2:13:21] as a whole because that's the numbers
you've got.
[2:13:25] Sorry, I'm trying I'm I'm not uh trying
to do any deflection in that way at all.
[2:13:33] I mean, a cynic would say, "Gee, it
looks like somebody was trying to get
[2:13:37] the lodge to subsidize the hospice." I
know that's not the case, but I would
[2:13:42] say that
like, how did that get that far apart
[2:13:49] for this long? Cuz that he did say that
he came to Strathmore to keep us from
[2:13:55] being denied a fifth time, right? So, I
mean, we we talk about um a
[2:14:00] laughingstock and I I I think we should
figure out like if you think of
[2:14:06] successful organizations like the Gaga
Stampede, they have a what went right,
[2:14:09] what went wrong the next day and we
still don't know really who said what.
[2:14:15] And I don't understand like some of
these little towns are getting like our
[2:14:19] neighbors are getting a lodge. Why do we
keep trying to pound a lodge hospice
[2:14:24] into like I don't understand that cuz
there isn't another one in the province.
[2:14:27] Our consultant told us that on January
6th at the meeting. He said there's not
[2:14:31] another one in the province and there's
not another one applied for. So, and
[2:14:35] quite frankly, I don't think our hospice
has like hospice license, right? So,
[2:14:41] they're just they're just a a volunteer
organization that we appreciate all the
[2:14:45] heck. I'm not saying I'm not trying to,
you know, make trouble. I'm just saying
[2:14:52] like we're trying to jam stuff together
that it appears they don't want jammed
[2:14:57] together.
>> Before we go too far,
[2:15:01] » this is not going to solve the problem.
Um the board has to meet and come up
[2:15:05] with some they've got some hard answers
to figure out and get back to us for
[2:15:08] » the partners and not just us. I'm going
to say all the partners because um
[2:15:13] there's a bunch of information that was
here and there's different ways of
[2:15:16] disseminating it. But um
yeah, we all have different opinions. We
[2:15:22] were all in the same room. We heard
different things. Councelor Ker, I'll
[2:15:26] just say that subject was brought up at
the meeting and the minister
[2:15:31] [clears throat]
assistant
[2:15:34] answer was they're there to offer
whatever the community wants. The
[2:15:38] community wants that and they're willing
to support it. They'll do whatever they
[2:15:43] can to support it. They'll find us
numbers. They'll look for grants.
[2:15:47] They'll do anything. They did not say it
was a hindrance at all. It's what the
[2:15:53] community wants. They're there for the
communities. They're coming to help us
[2:15:58] as a community to get this done. Now
being the only one
[2:16:07] the two are integrated
how it comes out and the financials I'm
[2:16:12] not sure but the we'll take the
mechanical room we need a mechanical
[2:16:17] room well it's bigger for the hospice so
they're paying for 10% of the mechanical
[2:16:23] room that has to be reflected in there
you can't say oh there's a hole here
[2:16:30] so we'll get that done. They'll come
down. We'll we'll form a committee whose
[2:16:35] board's going to form a committee. I
believe they asked if the CEOs could be
[2:16:39] on it and uh yeah, we'll work with them
and uh see how the next thing goes. It's
[2:16:47] a offer and yes the board would be we
had an emer uh special council meeting
[2:16:55] special board meeting and the board was
very uh enthusiastic about about the
[2:17:02] offer and we're looking forward to it.
We we decided to sit and wait until they
[2:17:11] contact us before we do anything cuz
that was their instructions. They'll
[2:17:17] contact us when they want to get
together. So when they contact us,
[2:17:24] way we go.
[2:17:29] Thank you.
>> Uh yeah. So that I'm going to um just
[2:17:33] ask that um you know you can keep us
informed going forward and uh I'm going
[2:17:39] to move the report as information.
>> You don't have to do that for that.
[2:17:44] » Oh, I don't.
>> No. Um just a suggestion too. The
[2:17:48] landscape on hospice has changed whether
you agree with it or not. There's one
[2:17:51] being built. I'm providing some services
in the area. You're suggesting that uh
[2:17:56] you have the public support to build
one. you may have five years ago. I
[2:18:00] don't know if you do now. If you're
going to go forward, maybe you should
[2:18:03] ask the public if they still want to do
this because I'm hearing a lot of
[2:18:08] different things. Um, you're assuming
you still have the support now.
[2:18:13] You
might want to reevaluate that.
[2:18:19] » Just a suggestion.
>> It is continuously being re-evaluated.
[2:18:24] Thank you very much.
>> Not to me. I'm saying the taxpayer
[2:18:30] » talking.
>> Okay,
[2:18:33] moving on. 5.11.
>> So, I just wanted to also raise this one
[2:18:38] as a another opportunity to um um
provide kudos to our administration for
[2:18:45] all the amazing work they did on our uh
ASB summer tour. This letter says things
[2:18:50] like uh she felt it was incredibly
valuable. She saw excellent examples of
[2:18:55] egg innovation, entrepreneurship,
education, and economic development work
[2:19:00] working together to strengthen rural
communities. Um, and just that uh
[2:19:05] opportunities like this help other
municipalities broaden understanding of
[2:19:10] what is possible in rural communities.
And I just think those words are so um
[2:19:15] powerful and and um yeah, I'm just
incredibly proud of our team and uh and
[2:19:22] I know it was a lot to ask for them to
add that onto their responsibilities,
[2:19:27] but uh my goodness, letters like this
really show that the worth of that
[2:19:32] project and and how how it resonated
with people. And so I'm so very glad
[2:19:38] that we did it and just
Kudos again to our staff,
[2:19:43] » councelor Bigger.
>> So, we have um and I don't know if they
[2:19:48] still do it. I remember that we had to
write something up for RMA about
[2:19:51] Wheatland County because they'll go
through the flips.
[2:19:55] » Sir, do we get asked every year for that
or once a year or how do we how does how
[2:19:59] does that work?
>> Yeah, at RMA they have always up on the
[2:20:03] screen profile community profile type
thing and I think we've had Rosebud on
[2:20:09] there for a lot of times. There was the
Cheeto Cheeto one year. Um, and so I
[2:20:16] wonder if we could reach out to RMA and
just to say um, for our community
[2:20:20] profile, we'd like to highlight our ASB
summer tour.
[2:20:23] » Okay. We'll administration will follow
up on that and see what we can do. Okay.
[2:20:27] Thank you.
>> And encourage someone else to do the
[2:20:29] next one.
>> Yeah, exactly.
[2:20:31] » Councelor Clayton,
>> were you Was your hand up? Sorry, I
[2:20:34] caught you out of the corner of my eye.
>> No.
[2:20:35] » Okay.
Okay.
[2:20:38] » Yeah. I going to say uh I was spect
[2:20:45] as successful as it was, but it just
kind of worked with the amount of people
[2:20:48] that we had and everybody wasn't rushed.
Nobody seemed to be pushed around or
[2:20:52] anything like that. Everybody got a
chance to engage and it was good
[2:20:56] weather. It worked out really well. Um
I'm glad we're not going to do another
[2:21:00] one for a long time. Um, you know, and
this was the first municipality since CO
[2:21:05] to try it and and you know, I think it
showed that it still works and hopefully
[2:21:10] another municipality will pick it up and
and run with it. It sounds like there
[2:21:13] might be one in the works, but we'll see
how that works out. It's definitely a
[2:21:16] good way to network. It's a good way to
focus on agriculture for a few days in
[2:21:19] the area that you're in. And uh, you
know, the people that come out just as
[2:21:24] SAG service board members, so they may
not be elected officials. they could be
[2:21:26] to, you know, local producers from an
area and they learn different things and
[2:21:30] it's it it helps and for the cost it was
really cost effective. So yeah,
[2:21:35] fantastic.
Anything else?
[2:21:42] Uh Wayland Chamber of Commerce, State of
the Region Invitation 513.
[2:21:48] » I also thought we should pull this out
and talk about it. It's an interesting
[2:21:52] uh program and it made me kind of regret
that maybe we don't sit on that board to
[2:21:57] um to contribute. I I don't know whether
Wheatland County has been approached to
[2:22:04] um we have a lot of it says big things
are happening in our region and I would
[2:22:08] say Wheatland County is a big part of
that and so I don't know whether they
[2:22:12] have reached out to our administration
to to ask us about
[2:22:18] um different things going on and whether
they will highlight those in this state
[2:22:22] of the region. Um, so it's just a a
question about whether
[2:22:30] whether we've had any communication on
this.
[2:22:33] » So, we haven't. I'm glad they're doing
this, but being on the board, I really
[2:22:38] felt that it needed more businesses on
that board, not not counselors or or
[2:22:46] staff. It needed businesses to get
involved in order to that to um bring
[2:22:53] change because that's what it it's got
about. It's it's it'd be nice if we had
[2:22:58] a wheatland business on there. Uh we did
have but I believe they've sold and
[2:23:04] moved on. So that was the reasoning for
taking us off that board. And I still
[2:23:09] believe that it should be businesses
running it.
[2:23:13] » I I agree with that. I just uh and it
used to be that we had an economic
[2:23:17] development officer who would sit would
at least participate would listen in on
[2:23:22] their meetings or um and so if we'd had
that kind of connection maybe could have
[2:23:27] been included better in this. I'm not
sure whether that's there's value in
[2:23:32] that or not
through the reap to council. We do have
[2:23:36] um someone attending by invite not on
the particular meetings with the
[2:23:41] community futures but we've had several
meetings because they're trying to still
[2:23:45] coordinate
when we had that meeting for invest
[2:23:48] Alberta with um MLA de Jang they still
want to do a regional approach with some
[2:23:54] of this and so we've been working with
um community futures on attracting local
[2:24:00] business for business renewal with um
invest Alberta and with um rural
[2:24:05] another business um opportunity prairies
can.
[2:24:08] » Yes. So I'm just talking though about uh
chamber.
[2:24:11] » Yes. No, but
>> but I am on the community.
[2:24:13] » So what we're doing is when is to
councelor deputy ree la is we're working
[2:24:18] with them the best way we can get
information about the county to these
[2:24:21] different bodies including the Calgary
region um economic development corridor
[2:24:26] as well.
>> The only thing I've seen is this. I have
[2:24:30] not been had a phone call about it. you
know, if they want us to speak or do a
[2:24:34] presentation or anything like that. Um,
and it's I was kind of wondering if I if
[2:24:39] we should be going because it might be
just for Strathmore, you know, I'm
[2:24:42] supportive of that. That's fine. But,
you know, it's there's they say
[2:24:46] Strathmore Wheatland Chamber of
Commerce, but is how much is Wheatland?
[2:24:49] I don't know anymore. It doesn't sound
like a bunch. So,
[2:24:52] and we're not members anymore. That was
a previous council's decision, I think.
[2:24:57] Yeah. Yeah. So, um, it looks like if we
attend, we have to pay the membership
[2:25:03] non-member fee to go. Um, I don't know
if that would be included as part of our
[2:25:08] PDM if we went or be on your own. That'd
be something council needs to know. We
[2:25:12] can send an email about it after. Yeah.
To find out so council can know if they
[2:25:17] want to go or and and what role they
represent, if they're just representing
[2:25:20] themselves as John Q public or as a
council member. Does that sound fair?
[2:25:25] » Okay. So, one thing you could do is if
you become a member,
[2:25:30] if you are a business, you would be
notified of any emails and changes and
[2:25:36] it could be brought to every board if we
become a actual member the county of
[2:25:41] Wheelland.
>> Right.
[2:25:42] » Yeah.
[2:25:46] » Anything else on that?
>> Okay. Moving on to the Legion. I just
[2:25:51] asked basically in the same line of um
what role we play in this. Is it John Q
[2:25:58] public or is this a council thing?
What does council wish?
[2:26:05] » I I think it should be just if you're
individually wanting to support it then
[2:26:11] it should be as a member of the public
personally.
[2:26:22] Fair enough.
That's all I need to know.
[2:26:29] Anything else?
Have the motions. We are done with the
[2:26:33] consent agenda. We'll move on to council
reports and related business. My reports
[2:26:38] first. Um very
the only board that I attend is Drum
[2:26:44] Howard District Solid Waste. We're um
going through changes with um as the
[2:26:50] name eludes me the the recycling that is
being done by the province of Alberta um
[2:26:56] on residential pickup. There is no
commercial involved. So we're talking
[2:26:59] about how does that look in the future?
Does uh the drum district solid waste
[2:27:03] want to be provided services to
business? How are we going to do that?
[2:27:07] Looking at full cost recovery is it
comparable to private sector? That kind
[2:27:11] of stuff. So that affects um staffing.
that affects a lot of things, but we
[2:27:16] know um rolling out this fall that the
residential component of that is taken
[2:27:20] away from the province and we're
actually getting revenue from it through
[2:27:22] our collection sites which include
Wheatland County, our transfer sites and
[2:27:26] things like that. So, there'll be some
revenue coming back. Um attended the
[2:27:30] groundbreaking ceremonies at True North
and uh Strathmore Community Care, which
[2:27:35] I think is fantastic. It's it's more
levels of uh service um provided through
[2:27:41] private sector which some people may
disagree with but if there's a need it's
[2:27:45] getting filled in a different way. Um
[2:27:52] yeah there's anything in there you want
to ask me please do. If not do I have to
[2:27:56] make a motion to accept as presented?
I'll make a motion to accept as
[2:28:00] presented. Okay.
>> Just a just a comment. I don't know if
[2:28:04] you've uh seen um RMA iso is sponsoring
or hosting um a webinar about the uh
[2:28:12] extended producer responsibility on next
Thursday. So I'm signed up for doing
[2:28:17] that and it should be interesting.
>> I've been on probably 30 of those in the
[2:28:21] last couple years and uh it's
interesting. It's the same repetitive
[2:28:24] and the same issues keep coming up like
because we're so far away from the big
[2:28:29] urban centers, we're getting deal with
less. That's just how it works. But what
[2:28:33] they say and what they do are two
totally different things. But I'm hoping
[2:28:35] it gets worked out. Um, everybody thinks
it's going to work perfect. But we had a
[2:28:40] whole recycling that was done by a
dedicated group of volunteers and
[2:28:45] uh boards that were looking after this
and then it's basically taken away from
[2:28:49] them. There's a lot of animosity there
about how it's going to work and
[2:28:52] suspicion if it's going to work, but
they assure us it's going to work.
[2:28:57] And uh we're not the only ones. I talked
to Vulcan Regional District and they're
[2:29:01] all the same. So, but yeah, I've been on
a few of those. But for council to be
[2:29:04] aware of them, absolutely. It's it's an
interesting program. Um, basically it's
[2:29:09] user pay. It's from when you buy a
bottle of shampoo or whatever, that's
[2:29:14] going to have an extra fee on it that
includes recycling. So, you're paying
[2:29:16] for it as a producer. And then they
built this whole infrastructure behind
[2:29:20] it to to cap to do that. Some of the
interesting is the co-mingling. So, for
[2:29:24] years, we would put uh cardboard and
glass separate. Now, they say, "No, no,
[2:29:29] it's okay. Put it all together." Well,
and as operationalized, we have bailers.
[2:29:34] You can't It's a totally different staff
working there. If you're going to put
[2:29:37] glass in a BOR and have somebody work
with it, it's a safety issues are like
[2:29:43] totally different. Not to mention fires
and things like that like this. We'll
[2:29:47] see how it works.
Yeah. So, there's all kinds of stuff.
[2:29:53] Yeah. Anything else?
Call a question.
[2:30:12] That's carried 7.2.
>> Uh, so my report is on page 196 and um I
[2:30:21] guess I I'll just again the egg service
board summer tour was phenomenal.
[2:30:27] I was able to do a few things. Um,
standard library fundraiser. I helped
[2:30:31] out uh selling 50/50s. That was a lovely
day. Foodyard is a new um franchise
[2:30:38] restaurant in Gleian that opened this
summer and so I was able to go for their
[2:30:42] opening day. Couple of events that I
missed that I'm very grateful for
[2:30:48] counselor Hebs to have attended. Uh St.
Andrews Anglican Church in Gleian
[2:30:52] celebrated their 140th anniversary. So
that was a huge milestone for them and
[2:30:57] uh yeah really too bad I I missed it but
um thank you to councelor Hebs and again
[2:31:05] he attended the Gle and uh Reef Clawson
attended Glacian Fire Department open
[2:31:10] house um August 30th we were heavy into
farming at that time so sadly I wasn't
[2:31:17] able to go but uh I really wanted to
just um convey my respect and admiration
[2:31:24] for the work that they do there and uh
especially following that big fire that
[2:31:28] happened in Gleian and so they did an
amazing job and um so grateful for them.
[2:31:33] So that's about all. I'll uh move my
reports as presented.
[2:31:39] » Thank you. Any questions?
>> We'll call a question.
[2:31:57] That's carried. 7.3 division two.
>> Um, you know, seed plant meeting. That's
[2:32:04] that's always good. I I always go back
to how it's nice to, you know, to get to
[2:32:10] talk to the frontline guys that are out
there, you know, putting the crop in and
[2:32:14] cleaning the seed. And, uh, July 7th, I
forgot to put the night and gale open
[2:32:18] house on my, um, on my report, but it's
there. Um, the ASB tour of course was
[2:32:25] wonderful and and kudos to staff, but I
also think that our chair here should uh
[2:32:31] get some kudos for that too because she
worked very very hard and had to twist
[2:32:35] some arms and uh so thanks Shannon for
putting us on the map. Um,
[2:32:41] you know, the ASB tour is really
wonderful to go see some of the local
[2:32:44] things. On July 21st, I reached out to
the Taber mayor and um the reason I did
[2:32:51] was because some of this municipal
policing. So Taber actually has their
[2:32:55] own police force and have had for 123
years. So he um I spent about 90 minutes
[2:33:03] on the phone with a gentleman. His
name's Andrew Pro. And um they've never
[2:33:07] had the RCMP. They've always had their
own police. And he he he's got some
[2:33:11] pluses and minuses. They all live in the
community. They live. So I didn't break
[2:33:16] it down like do you live in Taber and
Lebridge or Taber but anyhow I live in
[2:33:20] the community. So I'd actually am
planning to go meet the gentleman
[2:33:24] sometime in the next month or two. So if
anybody from this county or I thought
[2:33:28] even maybe I should reach out to the
town and see if some a town counselor
[2:33:32] wants to go. I mean I don't think it's
going to go anywhere but
[2:33:38] nothing ventured nothing gained. So I
thought I'd look into that. Uh July 25th
[2:33:43] was a Gleian Show and Shine and the
Rocky Ford Rodeo. July 31st was the
[2:33:47] Strathmore Rodeo, the parade. That was
fun.
[2:33:51] Um August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Strathmore
Rodeo. I also would like to congratulate
[2:33:57] the Gleian Church. I mean, that's the
same building 140 years, right? So never
[2:34:02] it hasn't been by fire or floods or and
they've uh they put in a new stained
[2:34:06] glass window and um and I didn't get
struck by lightning. So,
[2:34:14] um, August 11th council meeting, 18th
MPC. Um, we had the special meeting to
[2:34:20] appoint the RSB rep, which I'm glad to
get him back. We got the legend back for
[2:34:24] a while. Um, August 26th was the True
North Shasta lunch with MLA D. Young and
[2:34:31] Minister Nudorf and ADM Williams. August
30th, I went to the Gleian firefighters
[2:34:36] lunchon and um I also I got to shake
every one of those gentlemen's hand and
[2:34:40] and I think we need to always be
supporting our frontline guys
[2:34:44] » and ladies
>> and ladies even if sometimes that is
[2:34:47] putting our own, you know, um our own
issues aside enough to just prevent
[2:34:53] present a united front to those guys and
ladies.
[2:34:58] And with that, I would any questions?
I'd like to pres move my motion as read.
[2:35:06] Any questions?
I'll call a question.
[2:35:20] » That's carrying division three.
>> Yes. Um my reports on the server for
[2:35:27] August. I completely forgot about July
and
[2:35:31] I don't know um don't know what happened
to it. Just didn't happen. I guess uh
[2:35:36] everything's the same as um that you
guys were all at except for the RCMP
[2:35:42] coloring contest which they do every
year and there was um there's they do it
[2:35:48] for four categories for four winners and
all the winners were this year just
[2:35:53] happened to be all from Carsland. So we
went I went there and uh helped them the
[2:35:58] RCMP present it to the kids.
Yeah, it was really good and um yeah
[2:36:06] that's about it. All the rest has been
spoken about. So I'll move my uh report
[2:36:12] is presented.
>> Any questions?
[2:36:17] Call a question.
[2:36:27] That's carried. To change it up a bit,
we'll go to division 7.
[2:36:45] Thank you. Any questions?
I'll call the question.
[2:37:04] that's carried division Six.
[2:37:27] » Put your mic on.
>> Microphone needs sir.
[2:37:32] » Uh, anything special? Well, the open
house I thought at night and gale was
[2:37:37] was fairly well attended. Some good
questions that were there.
[2:37:42] Uh was at the Rocky Ford rodeo at the
parade. The highlight of I guess for the
[2:37:48] summer was the farm family award at the
stampede.
[2:37:52] The Tom and Donna Christensen family
[2:37:58] award. I don't know if had all their
kids there. I think they were missing
[2:38:01] one maybe. Uh
yeah, it's uh quite a difference to
[2:38:08] center from from the first early years.
It's quite a building that uh they were
[2:38:14] highly appreciative
as you can imagine.
[2:38:19] And uh
yeah, the lunchon with Minister Nord off
[2:38:25] I thought was uh
[2:38:29] was very good reaching out for the
community. I thought that that took a
[2:38:34] lot. My only uh
[2:38:40] I could have could have made a
suggestion. There are three other
[2:38:44] members of the of the community there
too that they weren't weren't there.
[2:38:50] Would have been nice to include the
villages too.
[2:38:53] And if there's no questions, I'll move
my report as uh
[2:38:58] as submitted.
>> Thank you. Any questions?
[2:39:04] I'll just make a comment about that
meeting. It was set up by the MLA De
[2:39:07] Jong's office. We had zero input into on
that. They just told us where to be and
[2:39:11] when. And I when I when it originally
came forward, I suggested that there was
[2:39:15] other ones that were in the area and
that's the way they went. So,
[2:39:20] the effort was there just didn't happen.
So, probably just the size. Um, and I
[2:39:26] just want to mention the open house at
night and gale because we've kind of
[2:39:29] gone to this different format and I just
want to say to council next time we have
[2:39:33] one, whoever's area it is, you can share
it. I'm not I'm the reb I will just sit
[2:39:38] back and be another counselor, but when
it's in your area, I think you should
[2:39:41] share it.
>> Yeah,
[2:39:43] » it's your it's your show, not mine.
>> And I apologize for that. I I should
[2:39:47] have done done that. I was my intent at
the start, but it just kind of went the
[2:39:51] other way. Um, but I'm just saying that
right now. So that's your your show.
[2:39:54] Yeah, because I know when I was at
yours, it was your show and Yeah. So it
[2:39:59] was just I was kind of frazzled that
day. So I apologize about that, but
[2:40:02] that'll be the way it's from this point
forward. Anything else?
[2:40:07] Call a question.
[2:40:17] » And last but not least, division four.
things I didn't write down. I guess
[2:40:23] » your microphone, please. Thank you.
>> Yeah, there are a few things I didn't
[2:40:27] write down, including the the
Nightingale
[2:40:31] open house, which was actually quite
quite good and well attended.
[2:40:35] Uh the regular council meetings, uh
Wheatland Housing Management Board
[2:40:40] meetings that we've had, municipal
planning commission,
[2:40:45] and public presentation, and the tour
that we had, uh they
[2:40:51] Shannon, excellent. I I couldn't care
who hears it, but you did a wonderful
[2:40:56] job. Just awesome.
Anyway, same with staff. But the U Mary
[2:41:03] Gold Library uh had a meeting and one of
the things I'd like to mention coming
[2:41:08] out of that meeting,
there should be no budget increase from
[2:41:14] Marold Library. So take that into
account when you're making the budget
[2:41:20] coming up. Uh we asked that question
before and it looks like with all the
[2:41:25] changes under that bill 23, there's
should be no [snorts] changes to our
[2:41:31] particular marold library area. Uh two
north and shasta opening was there.
[2:41:39] And I'd like to bring up
one item. I was phoned by a lo local
[2:41:46] resident
and it was just the other day so I
[2:41:51] didn't get a chance to put in the report
but the uh Origins uh industrial park on
[2:41:58] the east side
has some water drainage from the site
[2:42:04] going down number one highway ditch and
back into property in that area. And if
[2:42:10] you could look after trying to take a
look at that would be appreciated.
[2:42:17] It's u just a concern. [laughter]
>> CL bars
[2:42:22] » three through the reef to councelor um
clean. It's well underway. We've been
[2:42:27] already out there had them shut the
sprinklers off and it's being
[2:42:30] investigated and we are working with
origin and the lot owner association.
[2:42:36] Thank you very much.
And uh that concludes my report. Uh I
[2:42:42] move it be accepted as presented.
>> Thank you. Motion on the floor. Any
[2:42:46] questions? I've also noticed that storm
pond they're using water out of there to
[2:42:51] water the construction site at DH. I see
there's a truck there just about 24
[2:42:56] hours a day. So that's a good way to get
rid of the water. Um so it's actually
[2:43:01] being put to use for something other
than washing the ditch of the highway.
[2:43:05] » [gasps]
>> I say that sarcastically. Okay, I'll
[2:43:09] call the question.
[2:43:19] Good. That's carried. Does council want
to lunches here?
[2:43:23] » Yeah, might just go.
>> Pardon me.
[2:43:28] » Sure. We can do one more report.
Absolutely.
[2:43:31] This is the Wheatland Winds. Dave's
here.
[2:43:37] auction rules.
[2:43:44] Um, morning council Dave for
administration. Um, presenting the
[2:43:48] Wheatland Wind Community Benefit
Scholarship uh supports educational
[2:43:51] aspirations to students within Weeden
County Area Schools by awarding at least
[2:43:55] one university or college scholarship
each year. Um this scholarship uh
[2:44:00] recognizes and rewards high achieving
students pursuing um studies in science,
[2:44:05] technology, engineering or mathematics.
Uh representatives from Wheatland Wind
[2:44:09] and the county administration conducted
a thorough review of seven seven
[2:44:14] submissions and are pleased to recommend
awarding $2,000 scholarships to Katie
[2:44:19] Harter and Kelsey Scott. That concludes
my presentation.
[2:44:23] » Thank you. Council questions.
>> Excellent. also wishes
[2:44:32] » just a question. So are those do they
have to be county residents to qualify
[2:44:35] or can they be town and villages as
well? Thanks
[2:44:40] » it in the agreement it's wheelland
county like golden hills schools. So
[2:44:46] » which includes acme and yeah something
like that. Yeah.
[2:44:51] I'll move that uh council approve the
Wheatland Wind Community Benefit
[2:44:54] scholarships of $2,000 each to Katie
Harter and Kelsey Scott.
[2:44:59] » Thank you. Motion on the floor. Any
discussion?
[2:45:03] » I will call the question.
[2:45:11] And that's carried. And with that, we
will break for lunch for 45 minutes.
[2:45:16] Does that work for everybody? It's what
we've been doing lately. So, come back
[2:45:18] at 12:45.
[2:45:32] Welcome back. We'll resume council
meeting for September 8, 2026 where we
[2:45:36] left off. We're on to new business 8.1
8.2 20 uh decommissioning of legacy VHF
[2:45:44] radio system.
Welcome, sir.
[2:45:51] Good afternoon. Just move the screen
here.
[2:46:06] Uh, thank you, Reeve. Uh, members,
council, my name is Tom. I'm here with
[2:46:09] administration. I'm here today to report
on the decommissioning of the legacy VHF
[2:46:14] radio system which you can find on page
211 of your council report.
[2:46:20] We're here with this presentation as
followup from the April 15, 2025 regular
[2:46:24] council meeting in which council
considered and approved the radio
[2:46:27] communic communication system report. As
part of that approval, council passed a
[2:46:32] resolution directing the administration
prepare recommendations for
[2:46:35] decommissioning and disposal of
equipment associated with the existing
[2:46:38] radio communication system. Uh here
today, we're seeking council's approval
[2:46:43] to decommission the former radio
communication system by dismantling and
[2:46:47] recycling the Clooney and Hammer Hill
towers and any additional radio
[2:46:50] equipment that cannot be effectively
repurposed. Um just speaking of
[2:46:53] repurposing, our public works still uses
the VHF radio system. Their equipment is
[2:46:59] set up on the standard tower. Um, we've
already repurposed the mobile radios
[2:47:03] that came out of the fire trucks back to
public works as they had a need and
[2:47:06] there was no point of them spending
money on something we could support them
[2:47:09] with. Um, what the plan as part of
decommissioning is the best of the old
[2:47:14] equipment is going to be repurposed and
upgrade basically the standard site. So
[2:47:18] that way if they have something that's
from 1998 and we have something that was
[2:47:22] purchased in 2008 and is 10 years newer,
they're going to take the best of the
[2:47:26] old um as part of that. Um for the
actual report itself, um we are within
[2:47:32] budget still of that that initial um ask
that was given by council of $920,000.
[2:47:38] Uh to date we've spent 826,000
uh leaving 94,000 remaining uh which is
[2:47:44] more than sufficient for the removal of
the two tower sites. Um, and we're still
[2:47:48] expected to be under budget. Um, that's
the report and I'll gladly answer any
[2:47:51] questions.
>> Thank you. Any questions?
[2:47:58] » I'll move that council approves
administration to decommission and
[2:48:01] dispose [clears throat] of equipment
from the legacy very high frequency
[2:48:06] radio communication system in accordance
with county policy.
[2:48:10] » Thank you. Motion the fourth question,
Councelor Heps. So, um, we're going to
[2:48:15] keep those VHF radios for our for other
staff to use. Does that So, is there a
[2:48:21] backup towers? Obviously, we don't need
though the towers that you're going to
[2:48:24] decommission
[2:48:27] uh through the chair to the councelor.
Um, so the public works system has
[2:48:31] always worked off that single um
standard site. The other four towers,
[2:48:36] three of which were in service, one
never went into service, were never part
[2:48:39] of that public works system. So, this
will be only decommissioning the fire uh
[2:48:43] portions of it and the mobile repeaters
or mobile repeaters, sorry, mobile
[2:48:47] radios have already been uh repurposed
to them. They don't utilize the portable
[2:48:51] radios. So, that'll be one of the items
that will go into an ecycle type
[2:48:54] program.
>> Thank you. Any other questions?
[2:49:00] I'll call question.
[2:49:16] That's carried. Thank you.
Uh 8.3 Redland Water Servicing
[2:49:23] Infrastructure Capital Budget
Allocation.
[2:49:27] It's all about Redland today.
>> Good afternoon, council. Jose Porio
[2:49:32] Quervo with administration here
presenting the Redland water servicing
[2:49:36] infrastructure capital budget
allocation. Um this is a short report
[2:49:41] just allocating uh funds to
um put into the capital project for the
[2:49:48] construction of the Redland project in
the case we get the minimum number of uh
[2:49:54] of deposits. So uh we are seeking
council approval to establish 2026
[2:49:59] capital project and budget for the
initial redland water servicing
[2:50:03] infrastructure uh subject to prior
approval of the applicable redland
[2:50:08] utility bylaw which was passed earlier
today and I'm here for any questions.
[2:50:13] » Thank you. A follow up from the
discussion this morning the project now
[2:50:17] there's some funds to be allocated to
it. Councelor Kester
[2:50:23] » just one question. Have you approached
anybody in Redland yet if they wanted
[2:50:26] water?
>> Uh through the chair just through the
[2:50:30] previous engagements. Nothing for this
reason. No, not this one.
[2:50:36] » Because I was talking to some of them
and they didn't know nothing going on.
[2:50:40] So I didn't talk anymore. So you all
fill them in. Okay.
[2:50:45] Uh, the council approved a new capital
project for 2026 with a budget of
[2:50:50] 1,189,475
[2:50:55] for the installation of a new water
infrastructure for the community of
[2:50:58] Redland.
>> Thank you. Motion the floor. Council
[2:51:02] discussion. Councelor HS.
>> Just a question for staff. Um, so
[2:51:08] how come this wasn't in the budget or
was it like why do we need to do this in
[2:51:12] such an ad hoc manner? Please
[2:51:23] » through the chair. Um this is just a
provision. So, if uh individuals in
[2:51:29] Redland came forward with connection
requests and paid the connection fee in
[2:51:35] accordance with the bylaws that were
approved uh earlier in this meeting, um
[2:51:40] the county or administration would need
to have budget there in order to proceed
[2:51:44] with the engineering and drawings and
construction related to that project.
[2:51:49] And so this budget will essentially just
sit here um until that threshold of
[2:51:56] connections is reached and once it is
then it gives the administration the
[2:52:00] ability to move ahead with that project.
[2:52:05] Thank you. So do we have a time frame
like if you know if it takes a year do
[2:52:11] we come back because by then cost might
be different. Correct.
[2:52:17] through the chair. Um just to clarify,
do you mean in terms of uh when we meet
[2:52:23] the threshold of connection requests or
Yeah, we did build a um provision into
[2:52:30] the utility bylaw that if we get
connection requests and um and uh sorry
[2:52:39] uh uh connection fees paid um and let's
say a year passes and we don't have the
[2:52:45] threshold of five connections, the
county will just refund and the
[2:52:49] connection fees that we've received to
date. That helps the county in case
[2:52:53] costs change and we need to update the
bylaw. And it also helps the residents
[2:52:56] that are not sitting there and the
county's holding their connection fee
[2:52:59] hostage for uh you know years before
before we go and uh install the
[2:53:05] infrastructure. There is a provision
there where the administration will go
[2:53:08] to that individual and say do you want
us to continue retaining this connection
[2:53:13] fee? Um and that again that that is
depending on what the connection fee is
[2:53:17] at the time if the council's updated it.
So so there's some provisions in there
[2:53:20] to kind of handle that situation that
you're describing.
[2:53:24] Thank you. So in something like that
would we pay simple interest or you know
[2:53:28] because we're holding their money
>> through the chair. The bylaw explicitly
[2:53:32] states that the county will not pay
interest.
[2:53:36] » Thank you. Any other questions?
Yeah, chances of this being done in 2026
[2:53:42] are pretty slim, but this gives the
ability if maybe everybody signs
[2:53:46] tomorrow, it can proceed, which I think
is not a bad thing. Um, but there's a
[2:53:51] lot of unknowns here. So, uh, motions on
the floor. I'll call a question.
[2:54:11] Elser Kuster, that's carried. When you
go to uh
[2:54:17] talk to these people in Redland, are you
going to go see them in person? Are you
[2:54:21] going to send them an email or are you
going to
[2:54:24] thought about it yet?
Uh through the chair, we we have thought
[2:54:30] about it. I think likely right now what
we could do is the the the intention is
[2:54:34] to issue a letter to the land owners
within Redland so they're aware of the
[2:54:39] new bylaw provisions.
>> Could you CC me?
[2:54:43] » Um yeah, we can CC all of council.
>> Okay, thanks.
[2:54:48] » Perfect. Uh move on to 8.4. Spear grass
water treatment plant infllet valve
[2:54:55] inlet flow valves budget adjustment.
Good afternoon, council. Jose again here
[2:55:01] from administration presenting the
sprass water treatment plant inlet flow
[2:55:04] valve budget adjustment.
Um, so this one is a uh project capital
[2:55:12] budget uh request to increase the
capital budget to $184,000.
[2:55:19] We are doing a a handful of upgrades at
the Speargrass Water Treatment Plant
[2:55:22] that were identified during an Alberta
Environment Protected Areas site visit.
[2:55:28] They noted a few deficiencies and so
this is one that we're trying to push
[2:55:32] forward with as soon as possible. It's
considered one of the more critical
[2:55:35] items. Uh we just recently completed an
asset management uh assessment of the
[2:55:42] spear gas water treatment plant and
these valves were identified as having
[2:55:46] only one year remaining of its lifespan
and uh it was also identified by by
[2:55:52] Albert Environment that needed uh needed
to be replaced or sorry not not the
[2:55:57] valves but the meters. So we need to
have meters on the inlet.
[2:56:02] Very quick brief background. Uh the
spear gas water treatment plant requires
[2:56:05] a replacement of two inlet flow control
valves and installation of meters on the
[2:56:09] daff filter trains. The inlet flow
control valves allow each filter train
[2:56:13] to be isolated for required maintenance
while maintaining plant operations. The
[2:56:18] meters are necessary to accurately
measure the volume of water entering
[2:56:22] each filter train for treatment. Um,
going down here to the discussion, the
[2:56:28] approved 2026 capital budget includes
$24,000 for engineering and the design
[2:56:33] uh and installation of the inlet flow
valves and meters was originally
[2:56:36] scheduled for next year in 2027 with a
budget allocation of $160,000.
[2:56:42] During the design process,
administration I identified opportunity
[2:56:45] to complete both the engineering and
installation this year. Uh and advancing
[2:56:49] construction will expedite replacement
of the aging inlet flow control valves
[2:56:53] as well as address the metering
deficiencies identified by Albert
[2:56:57] Environment.
Um administration is recommending that
[2:57:01] the $160,000 currently planned for 2027
be advanced to 2026. This amendment
[2:57:07] would increase the total approved budget
to $184,000.
[2:57:12] And that concludes my presentation and
I'm here for any questions.
[2:57:16] » Thank you. Go ahead.
I'll move that council approve an
[2:57:19] amendment to the 2026 capital budget to
advance 160,000 to the wheatland to the
[2:57:25] spearrass WTP
inlet flow valves project budgeted for
[2:57:30] 2027 to 2026 increasing the 2026 project
budget to 284,000.
[2:57:39] » Thank you. Motion four questions. Go
ahead.
[2:57:42] » Just a question. So with the asset
management plan, what is the window?
[2:57:46] Like could it be, you know, two years
early or five years late or I mean it's
[2:57:52] your best guess, right? Like we don't
actually physically in inspect those.
[2:57:56] And I don't just mean these particular
valves, but the asset management plan
[2:58:01] itself might actually be having us spend
a heck of a lot more money than we have
[2:58:05] to
>> through the chair. That's that's right.
[2:58:08] So, we just recently had someone
visually inspect these valves and so
[2:58:13] that's why they know that these valves
are at end of life. Um, but the idea is
[2:58:18] that that asset management program will
have just
[2:58:23] funds available to replace it when it
breaks. So, if this valve magically
[2:58:27] holds on for another 5 years, then on
that fifth year mark, we could we could
[2:58:33] replace it and we have the funds
available. So, that's that's kind of
[2:58:35] where that's in. Not just because it
hits zero doesn't mean necessarily that
[2:58:40] we'll replace it, but that we need to
make sure that there are funds available
[2:58:44] to replace it.
>> Thank you, Councelor Clayton.
[2:58:51] » Just a curious question on how how old
are the valves? And and the reason I'm
[2:58:57] asking is I know that valves have a
lifetime. Usually, it's not the lifetime
[2:59:04] of the valve, but it's the the u
internals that usually wear enough that
[2:59:11] you have to either be replaced or
rebuilt.
[2:59:15] Have these been looked at being a
replacement or rebuilt or
[2:59:20] I've got water
raw water valves that are over 50 years
[2:59:24] old that haven't had to be replaced. So,
I'm just curious
[2:59:30] » through the chair. So the valves that
are being replaced, so right now what we
[2:59:34] have there are manual valves. So we
manually have to turn them on and off.
[2:59:38] Uh the valves that we're looking to
replace them with would be upgrades to
[2:59:41] that. So they would actually be
connected to our SCADA in that they can
[2:59:45] be controlled uh remotely and that they
would be controlled in such a way that
[2:59:51] the amount of water going into the train
can be can can change. Right now it's
[2:59:56] all it's all manual. The these valves
are from the original construction of
[3:00:04] the water treatment plant and I want to
say they're
[3:00:08] they're approaching
25 years.
[3:00:12] » No,
>> 25.
[3:00:14] » Yeah,
[3:00:18] » it sounds to me it's more like an
upgrade than a replacement. Thanks.
[3:00:24] » And there's metering involved, too, that
wasn't there before. So,
[3:00:29] good questions. Um, yeah, go ahead.
>> So, is this a need to replace valves or
[3:00:38] is this we want to upgrade to uh
remotely controlled valves so they'll
[3:00:43] fit SCADA?
>> No. So, through the chair, the the
[3:00:48] valves do need to be replaced whether
they're replaced in kind or or upgraded.
[3:00:52] uh we are we've been recommended to
upgrade them. The main piece here that
[3:00:58] we're trying to get or the main reason
for this is the meters. The meters there
[3:01:03] there's no meters going into our uh DA
filter trains. And so in conjunction
[3:01:08] with the meters, we also upgrade the
inlet uh valves
[3:01:12] » because 25 years is not that old for a
valve. Is it a globe valve, a needle and
[3:01:16] seat or a ball valve or uh
>> through the chair? It's a globe valve.
[3:01:20] » Globe valve. Okay.
[3:01:27] Any other questions?
Go ahead.
[3:01:35] I'm just thinking if I need a valve at
home
[3:01:39] working my irrigation.
>> I've got a question so I clarify it
[3:01:44] because I get questions from time to
time. We we we passed this motion for
[3:01:50] 200,000 plus or minus.
Uh how does it get paid? Like I know
[3:01:56] it's in the general
account like it says here, but when we
[3:02:01] do our books for the audit, does it come
out of general taxation?
[3:02:08] Does it come out of a reserve fund
someplace?
[3:02:11] What happens when the reserve fund runs
empty? All those kind of little
[3:02:16] questions. Can you just clarify for my
rate pairs?
[3:02:21] » Uh yes sa Reeves. So any
uh as we collect and add to the reserves
[3:02:27] is up to council how you wish to
distribute those afterwards. But uh if
[3:02:32] we were to allocate this these funds and
spend them this year, right? Uh it would
[3:02:37] likely come from the uh from surplus,
right? From our reserve. So, um, that's
[3:02:45] likely what would be done. Of course,
I'm not on the accounting side to
[3:02:49] actually show how that moves, but that's
likely where it would come from
[3:02:52] initially,
>> not generally from from tax. It's a
[3:02:56] capital project.
>> So, in particular, every time I think
[3:03:01] you pay a water bill, there's a
percentage goes to a reserve. It would
[3:03:07] be that reserve that would get tagged on
the balance of
[3:03:12] pieces that go into a water treatment
plant or or
[3:03:18] » Yeah. through the reef. Uh if we've set
up a if we've set up the accounts to run
[3:03:23] like that, then yes, we we would have a
reserve specifically dedicated to
[3:03:27] Redland for like replace asset
replacements for instance. But a new
[3:03:32] project like this would come from could
come from any reservoir specifically in
[3:03:36] this case the um the unrestricted
surplus
[3:03:42] that answer your question.
>> Well, I get asked from time to time on
[3:03:48] reserves and how they're spent and
especially
[3:03:53] in the hamlets when they're putting
money aside for a reserve. I said,
[3:03:58] 'Well, your water plant breaks down.
They got money to fix it, but it sounds
[3:04:06] like it's maybe at the call of who's
ever entering the number in which
[3:04:10] reserve you take it out. If it's a
replacement or if it's a upgrade or if
[3:04:15] it's a like this one be maybe be half
upgrade, half replacement, I don't know.
[3:04:21] But uh just something I can tell them
that's better than
[3:04:27] » yeah through the chair uh according to
our reserves policy the allocation or
[3:04:32] what we use that reserve for would be
would apply to that policy. So it would
[3:04:36] be up to council how you would want to
fund specific projects from like for
[3:04:41] instance if we were pre we had planned
this in budget it would come out to x
[3:04:45] reserve that would have been already
preset um and then in the case where we
[3:04:51] are asking for instance for these funds
council could say we could take uh would
[3:04:56] if you would like the the funds to come
out of a general reserve for water
[3:05:02] wastewater services we could do that.
So it's it is up to council at the end
[3:05:08] of the day which reserve you would like
it to come from.
[3:05:11] » But it's coming from a reserve.
>> Yes. To the chair. Uh capital projects
[3:05:16] are typically coming from
>> reserve.
[3:05:19] So it would be prudent on our part to
name a reserve.
[3:05:24] » Really?
[3:05:28] » So what we're what we're hearing is that
it's coming from an unallocated reserve.
[3:05:32] Is that correct? as it stands right now
>> uh through the chair. I have to double
[3:05:37] check, but uh that would be my best
guess that it would be coming from the
[3:05:40] from unallocated surplus,
[3:05:45] » councor Clayton, and then councelor
Bigger.
[3:05:51] » I'm having trouble with this coming
forward as a valve replacement project.
[3:05:55] And it's not really a valve replacement
project. It's an upgrade to the inlet of
[3:06:01] the treatment plant with meters and a
controllable valve system. And I would
[3:06:07] like to see that uh as what we're
actually going to approve when we do uh
[3:06:14] ask the question.
[3:06:19] » So the way I look at it is um this was
scheduled for 2027. They were going to
[3:06:24] do it in 2026. Either way it was going
to get done and it's it's um environment
[3:06:29] that are asking for those meters or
demanding those meters. So it could be
[3:06:34] it would be capital but either way we
have to put the meters in because that's
[3:06:38] what environment saying. And for the
valve we would have put them in we would
[3:06:43] have replaced it in 2027. We're just
doing it a week a year earlier because
[3:06:48] for some reason it's
failing but it would have been in the
[3:06:53] capital budget next year anyway. So,
>> I'm not disagreeing with that, but let's
[3:06:59] call it what it is is all I'm saying
that uh I think it's very well to be
[3:07:05] done. I've got no no disagreement with
it that way as long as we find our place
[3:07:10] to fund it, but it is not a valve
replacement project.
[3:07:17] It's an upgrade.
>> Go ahead through the chair. But we
[3:07:23] received um we got our engineers to do
two quotes. They they also replace uh
[3:07:28] had a quote to replace in kind. So
that's always that's also the option
[3:07:32] that I can we can go with the
replacement is in kind. Um but if we
[3:07:38] want to do it this year, the the project
budget would have to be increased
[3:07:42] regardless and I can just direct the the
work to be done
[3:07:47] with the
inind valves.
[3:07:51] » Okay. [clears throat] So, let me make
sure I'm understanding this right. So,
[3:07:55] this project that's for Speargrass is
going to get paid for out of reserves.
[3:08:00] It's not going to come from the water
use at Speargrass.
[3:08:05] And yet, we're telling the Redland
people that they've got to pay for
[3:08:09] everything. We I mean, we just sat here
for two hours this morning discussing
[3:08:13] that. I I'm confused at how this is
fair.
[3:08:23] Go ahead.
>> Well, it's fair because they take funds
[3:08:26] from us every month and put it into an
actual reserve.
[3:08:33] » We are paying We are paying for it.
>> With all due respect, I'd like
[3:08:37] administration to uh give me an answer
for that please.
[3:08:42] » Uh yeah, through the chair, I think this
might help. So, just getting some
[3:08:44] information. So that that res the
reserve that particular was reserved was
[3:08:48] planned to be depleted this year with
already stuff that's been budgeted. So
[3:08:52] it would need to come from al
unallocated surplus.
[3:08:56] » Okay. But the unallocated surplus that
money was put in there by all the rate
[3:09:02] payers of Wheatland County. Correct.
>> Yeah. So our revenue our surplus revenue
[3:09:07] goes into a reserve and then then from
that point if council wants to
[3:09:10] distribute it into other reserves they
can. But currently currently that would
[3:09:14] come because it's not in a particular
reserve. It'll be an unallocated
[3:09:17] surplus.
>> So that goes to my point then earlier
[3:09:21] today we went on and on about how
Redlands has to pay for everything and
[3:09:25] no one else should be on the bill and
now we're saying if it's spear grass
[3:09:28] we'll just take it out of reserves and
every rateayer has to pay it. My
[3:09:32] question still remains is how is this
fair?
[3:09:37] So question I would have then is uh
could administration not because we have
[3:09:42] funds coming in through
Spirrass and Cars Land on a on a utility
[3:09:48] bill. We could go into the negative on
that and re transfer the funds back over
[3:09:52] into general
at some point. Is that an accounting
[3:09:56] nightmare? Is that a possible thing?
Just so it's fair. Like I said this a
[3:09:59] long time ago, these individual hamlets
should almost have their own budgets
[3:10:04] because it's your robin from Peter to
pay Paul and then you have people that
[3:10:08] have absolutely no access to those
services that are subsidizing. Go ahead
[3:10:12] Brad through the chair to the chair. Um
something that may be helpful as well I
[3:10:17] think soon forthcoming um uh council
unless I missed this in the last council
[3:10:23] meeting sorry um uh we we'll consider
the utility rates uh between all of the
[3:10:30] communities um in that plays the the
operational costs the capital
[3:10:35] replacement costs um existing debentures
that may exist and they're all part of
[3:10:39] those utility bills um and then also
part of that is is subsidy to council uh
[3:10:45] that that the county offers as part of
those utility bills. So, that's all part
[3:10:49] of that broad um discussion too,
including this discussion as well in
[3:10:54] council needing to decide how does it
want to manage capital replacement,
[3:10:59] reserve funds, uh utility billing, uh
subsidization of those of utility bills,
[3:11:04] etc., etc. So, so, um, just just to
offer to council that that is a a major
[3:11:10] part of that discussion when when
visiting the utility bills and and how
[3:11:13] much council wants to set those at.
Thank you. Any other questions before we
[3:11:19] call the question?
I think it's good that we uh these
[3:11:25] plants are inspected by a third party,
which is the Alberta Environment. that
[3:11:28] happens on could happen twice a year,
could happen once every 5 years, but
[3:11:32] when they come, I've been through it.
They will recommend upgrades. It's a
[3:11:36] recommendation. It's not a to-do, but
when they recommend something, you
[3:11:39] should probably do it. Um, we have the
funds to be able to do it. This is a
[3:11:43] this is drinking water quality. This is
gives the operations uh more control,
[3:11:48] gives you more, you have to keep track
of water definitely. Um, so I support
[3:11:52] this. How we paid to get the money back.
We have the money now. We could we have
[3:11:57] uh money coming back in from these
municipalities or these sorry hamlets
[3:12:01] that are paying it. We just have to
figure out how to uh replenish that
[3:12:04] funds and that can be done later on.
So with that I will call a question.
[3:12:23] Just wait till after it's
till the vote is done. Please.
[3:12:30] If every hamlet has a reserve fund for
water and they're putting money into it
[3:12:40] because they paid their water bill,
would it not be prudent of us to use
[3:12:45] that money to pay for their water
infrastructure?
[3:12:51] It's an easy way to track if we're
a collecting enough money for reserve
[3:13:00] and b why collect a reserve if we're not
going to use it.
[3:13:05] Why leave money sit there and use other
money? I I'm have a hard time here.
[3:13:11] Thanks.
Yeah, through the through the reef. Um
[3:13:15] so we are spending that money and in
fact um you know just kind of hearkening
[3:13:19] back to the committee of the whole
meeting those communities are uh they're
[3:13:24] not nowhere near cost recovery. So they
are being subsidized and a significant
[3:13:29] portion of that is being subsidized for
capital projects and capital
[3:13:32] replacement. So a lot of changes need to
happen to shift that more towards having
[3:13:38] that uh that monies in those reserves.
uh whereas um just sort of the sentiment
[3:13:44] that we received for new communities
from council would be to try and achieve
[3:13:48] cost recovery. So that would be some of
the difference there. But um that's why
[3:13:54] in this case it would be coming from
unallocated surpluses because the at the
[3:13:58] end of the year that uh that reserve is
dry.
[3:14:03] I understand that. And then and then I
had no problem with using money to help
[3:14:11] to put into the hamlets. My biggest
concern has always been is to be fair to
[3:14:17] everybody. Now a new pipe versus a new
pipe over there is still a new pipe. A
[3:14:24] new community
and an other new community that's 100
[3:14:29] years old doesn't have a pipe are
different things too.
[3:14:34] So I just implore
not staff because you just do what we
[3:14:41] ask you to do but council to be always
cognizant and and try and be fair all
[3:14:48] the time and and look at the big
picture. I don't have a problem with it
[3:14:54] where the money comes from
because money comes from over there and
[3:15:00] can be spent on the approach over here.
that it's that's our job to allocate it,
[3:15:07] but we got to be fair and then that's
Yeah. Thank you for listening to me.
[3:15:14] Probably listen too much today.
[3:15:18] [clears throat] Not that you listen too
much, I talk too much.
[3:15:23] No problem. Uh vote is still in
progress. I don't know who hasn't voted.
[3:15:46] That's carried.
Thank you. We'll move on to 8.5
[3:15:50] watershed resiliency and restoration
program funding advocacy letter.
[3:15:57] Mr. Bullock.
[gasps] Good afternoon, council. Brad
[3:16:01] Bulock presenting uh this report about
the WRRP
[3:16:07] funding advocacy letter. Um this is
something that I believe all of the
[3:16:11] individuals on council have seen before
um at the uh agricultural service board
[3:16:16] meeting in July. Um at that meeting the
the letter was presented and Alice's the
[3:16:23] letter from Alice uh advocating for um
the board and and for council to provide
[3:16:29] a letter letter of support. The draft
letter of support that was um asked for
[3:16:36] by Alice is attached to this report for
council's consideration. And what's
[3:16:41] happening here is the the province has
essentially announced that it will be no
[3:16:46] longer funding or no longer accepting
new applications under the WRP program I
[3:16:52] believe past 2027. So past I think the
existing applications. And so, uh,
[3:16:57] Alice's, uh, their letter is
essentially, um, appealing to the
[3:17:02] province to continue supporting this
program. Um, C administration did
[3:17:08] following the agricultural service board
meeting um, in which at which time the
[3:17:14] board did direct administration to draft
a letter to be signed by the ASB chair
[3:17:19] to be sent to the minister. um at the
same and during that same meeting the
[3:17:23] ASB uh asked administration to bring
this matter to council as well. So we're
[3:17:28] kind of doing both at the same time. And
then the letter that administration has
[3:17:32] drafted for council's consideration uh
the proposal is that both the Reeve if
[3:17:37] council were to uh support that and the
ASB chair could support the same letter
[3:17:43] that goes to the minister if um if
council is amendable to that. So that
[3:17:47] concludes my report. I'm here for any
questions.
[3:17:49] » Thank you. Any questions?
Council's wishes.
[3:17:54] » I'll move that Wheatland County Council
authorize the Reeve [clears throat] to
[3:17:58] co-sign with the egg service board chair
the letter to the Minister of
[3:18:01] Environment and Protected Areas in
support of Alice's advocacy regarding
[3:18:06] the discontinuation of the watershed
resiliency and restoration program
[3:18:10] funding.
>> Thank you. Any discussion?
[3:18:15] » I just think it's important. Uh we have
a lot of uh producers in the area who
[3:18:21] use that grant funding to protect our
waterways including Rosebud and Crowoot
[3:18:26] uh water creeks and um so yeah it's a
shame that the province is
[3:18:34] potentially or maybe already has um
wrapped up that program. So, I think
[3:18:41] it's worthwhile to send a letter just to
express our
[3:18:45] disappointment or uh advocacy to do
something else or something to replace
[3:18:50] it or whatever.
>> Thank you. Couldn't have said it better
[3:18:55] myself.
Any other discussion?
[3:18:59] I will call the question.
[3:19:10] That's carried. Thank you. 8.6 safety
matter. Councelor Clayton
[3:19:17] floor is yours.
[3:19:24] just I'm not uh want to take a lot of
your time, but
[3:19:30] about April of this year, I brought up a
concern
[3:19:35] of a sign that is in the entrance to
Cheetel that is blocked blocking the
[3:19:42] view of uh traffic coming down the
highway in its location if you stop by
[3:19:46] the stop sign. And it was brought up by
quite a number of the community people
[3:19:52] in my area on because we were doing
range township road 240 and trying to
[3:19:57] extend it through
and it's becoming more of a more of an
[3:20:02] issue and uh
we uh it was agreed that we could move
[3:20:09] this sign
uh and Brad has been looking after
[3:20:13] getting it done. But my concern is that
I was passed there yesterday again and
[3:20:18] it was still in the same location and my
safety concern is that what is the
[3:20:26] liability does this council have
if there's something that involves
[3:20:32] safety and is recognized as being a
safety element and doesn't get done in a
[3:20:38] reasonable length of time. And uh I'm
not
[3:20:43] the other issue we we had another one
come up on a railroad crossing on range
[3:20:49] road 255 which is my road
and uh it's I know probably not long
[3:20:56] enough after that we passed the fact
that we wanted to put flashing lights in
[3:21:00] a stop sign huge enough at that site to
get it done but waiting three or four or
[3:21:07] five months to get something done that
is The safety element I think is a
[3:21:12] concern that this council should take
into account because liabilities when
[3:21:19] you know you got a problem and you don't
fix the problem in a reasonable length
[3:21:23] of time
[3:21:26] could come back and uh I just wanted to
express my concern
[3:21:33] that uh in the future if we have
[snorts] something designated a safety
[3:21:39] item if we to put it into a priority.
Um, I don't know what kind of a priority
[3:21:45] you guys or we have in in the
administration side to make things
[3:21:49] happen, but
I shouldn't have to go back and keep
[3:21:54] checking to see if the sign has been
moved. My apologies.
[3:22:00] » Thank you. I don't know if there's a
response or
[3:22:04] » I'm I'm not expecting a response. I just
think
[3:22:08] think that the administration should be
given the backing by this council to
[3:22:16] make safety elements a priority in such
a way as they can handle them. Thank
[3:22:22] you.
>> A suggestion would be the sign could
[3:22:24] have easily been removed and put in the
yard until it was moved because it's
[3:22:29] just bolted down on breakaway bolts or
whatever. So that's just me. Go ahead.
[3:22:35] » I can speak to this um matter.
Administration has been looking into to
[3:22:40] this. Um we have identified a new
location uh for that sign. Um I'd be
[3:22:47] somewhat careful in calling it a safety
issue even though um we have visited and
[3:22:51] it is in sight lines there. Drivers are
responsible to ensure that they can uh
[3:22:56] you know proceed safely before they
proceed. Um while where the sign is it's
[3:23:01] I would agree that it's inconvenient in
terms of where the actual stop line is.
[3:23:05] Um drivers can inch forward to get the
sight line that they may need to
[3:23:08] proceed. That said um administration is
planning to move the sign. We've
[3:23:13] identified a new location further down
the road. Um because it's related to a
[3:23:17] highway um we have to get at approval
prior to uh doing work and moving the
[3:23:23] sign. um that has been submitted to
Alberta Transportation and we're just
[3:23:27] waiting for their response and their
approval to to do the work within the
[3:23:31] highway right away.
Uh we we do anticipate that in the near
[3:23:36] future. Um and so we anticipate it being
done uh you know prior to winter hitting
[3:23:41] at least. Um but again we're we're we're
we're waiting for their final approval
[3:23:45] which does take a little bit of time
just administratively.
[3:23:49] » Go ahead. Is there anything
we can do to help that side of the issue
[3:23:56] move along quicker?
I don't I know your hands are slightly
[3:24:02] tied on that way, but and I apologize
for that, but I find
[3:24:10] No, thank you.
>> I think the important thing to point out
[3:24:14] too, it is a secondary highway, so that
original installation was approved by at
[3:24:18] so their road. um whether the
sightelines, you know, I've been there.
[3:24:23] I don't deny that it's difficult to see,
but you can. So, um in the short term,
[3:24:28] we could just easily remove the sign
because it's not critical. It's not a
[3:24:31] critical sign. That's about the only
thing we could do in the and there's
[3:24:34] costs involved to store it and they
might risk damaging it and all that kind
[3:24:37] of stuff. Go ahead.
>> So, it' be one thing that's uh always
[3:24:41] been suggested to me if it's if the
province is holding it up, go talk to
[3:24:46] your MLA. Apparently, she can get things
done a lot faster. So, go talk to her.
[3:24:51] She'll get it done for you really fast.
>> Is that my accountability? Is it the
[3:24:56] councils?
>> Do we have something that we can Sorry,
[3:25:03] » you know, if if I start chasing
provincial government people to get
[3:25:07] something done on a local safety basis,
maybe not call it safety, but it is.
[3:25:15] Wouldn't it have more
uh backing if we did it as a council?
[3:25:22] » We could send a letter to our MLA if
that helps. But that's about as where as
[3:25:28] council that's where it comes from. Go
ahead
[3:25:31] » to to council. I was just going to
suggest um [clears throat] something
[3:25:34] administration could do maybe even
before going there is is follow up with
[3:25:38] Alberta Transportation to get an update
on when that approval may be coming. Um
[3:25:42] and we can give council that update if
it's going to come in the next week or
[3:25:45] two. Um then [clears throat] then you
know reaching out to the minister might
[3:25:49] uh
[3:25:53] » Sure. Yeah. Um but we can we can do that
and then if it's going to be a while we
[3:25:58] can ask them if they're able to speed up
the process a little bit for us. So we
[3:26:00] could we could do that uh initially
anyway.
[3:26:05] » I appreciate that. Thank you.
>> Anything further?
[3:26:10] Well, that concludes our regular council
meeting. We have an one in camera item.
[3:26:15] So, we will take a break for about five
minutes to set up for that. So, I'll
[3:26:20] need a motion to go on camera, which I
will put forward and call the question.
[3:26:32] » Yeah.
Vote first before you leave.
[3:26:40] Thanks for entertaining.
>> No problem.
[3:26:42] » Just
[3:26:51] that's carried. We'll be back at uh
1:35.
[3:26:58] » Good afternoon everyone. Uh we came out
of in camera at 1:40 p.m. Um there was
[3:27:03] no motions arising from in camera so I
will adjourn this meeting. Have a great
[3:27:07] day.