Ask-A-Candidate Question 23

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QUESTION ADDRESSED TO MORINVILLE MAYORAL AND COUNCIL CANDIDATES

What are your thoughts on the percentage of Town of Morinville Employees that do not reside in Morinville – Contracted and full time employees? How do you think this reflects on our Branding efforts of trying to get people to move here when they don’t even live here?

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3 Comments

  1. PLEASE NOTE – Only Candidates may post comments to this posting. Morinvillenews.com welcomes reader comments on our articles, but we wish to keep these particular segments open for candidates alone so that readers do not have to separate who is and is not vying for their vote.

  2. I believe that as long as the town does a proper search for the most qualified candidate available to us at the time their current place of residence should not be a factor in their employment. We live in a community that is closely situated to many other centres and that will impact the number of candidates that apply for our positions. We all want the Town of Morinville to attract the best and most qualified candidates for the positions that we have. I think that we should look favorably upon an employee that is so committed to their position that they are willing to commute, in some cases quite a distance, to come to work.

    Do I hope that the town’s employees fall in love with our community and make plans to move here? Absolutely, I love Morinville and hope that it is the community of choice for everyone. But there are a lot of factors that go into making such a large decision – including whether or not they have a family and commitments to the community they are currently in.

    This does bring up the point that Morinville has a real need for business investments that will create more jobs within our own community. Knowing that 56% of our working residents work in communities outside of our municipality shows that this is an important issue. We have a fabulous Career and Employment Centre available to our residents but the majority of the jobs that they have in their job books are outside of our community. My hope is that we are able to strengthen our community enough to be able to attract real commercial investment that will provide our residents with local jobs and boost our economy.

    We can begin this by renewing the relationships that we have with the surrounding communities so that we can work together to showcase our area. Town Council needs to develop an Economic Development Plan and this needs to be a top priority for 2011. As well, we need to work with the Chamber of Commerce to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our existing businesses – as they are one of our best advocates to potential investors and need to be supported.

  3. In brief, Town employees should continue to be hired on their expertise for the job. Residency in Town is not a requirement. We have many neighboring communities where over 60% of us work and we welcome residents of other communities to work in Morinville.

    The bigger issue on employment is how do we create more private sector employment opportunities in Morinville and across the Capital region? We have great businesses in Town. I know because as a family we’ve shopped at them for over 22 years! Residents have said to me the Town needs to work closer with those businesses and the Morinville District Chamber of Commerce to attract new business. To quote those residents “Our existing businesses are the best ambassadors for Morinville to attract new business”.

    A priority for me as Councillor is for the Town to develop a comprehensive economic development plan. This plan will engage businesses and local and regional residents. It will set a sustainable plan for the future. it will consider both private and public sector employment opportunities. A complementary priority is for Council to meet at least annually with the Chamber of Commerce.

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