Council scraps some committees

Jan. 24, 2019

by Colin Smith

Morinville Town Council is ending its participation in certain outside organizations, but the Morinville Festival Society will not be one of them.

At its January 22 meeting Council discussed a motion to drop appointments to the Alberta Smart City Alliance, Edmonton Salutes Committee, Enbridge Northern Gateway Advisory and Morinville Festival Society.

These were identified as organizations for which representation was no longer needed or desirable, following a review of the more than a dozen standing committees.

However, Councillor Stephen Dafoe moved an amendment to remove the Morinville Festival Society from that list.

In discussion on the amendment, it was brought up that the society has lost members and does not seem to be in good shape.

Mayor Barry Turner, appointed liaison to the group, said he met with the group in January 2018. But attempts to have a further meeting, as called for by a Council motion, were unsuccessful.

“I have indicated they are not willing to have that meeting,” said Turner. “Until that point, I’m okay to rescinding the society from the standing committees at this time.

Dafoe argued that the society’s past contributions meant it should be entitled to more regard.

“This council doesn’t have any concrete information on the status of the society,” he said. “This is a community group that through various people has put on some really good festivals – whether it’s a summer festival or a fall festival, and they’ve even took part in our winter snow festival. I’m asking that we remove them from consideration until we do have more facts.”

The amendment passed, as did the original motion that rescinded appointments to the other organizations.

In the case of the Edmonton Salutes Committee, there was a suggestion that it may be better to support Morinville’s military families directly.

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