Morinville Council Briefs

by Tristan Turner
Morinville News Correspondent

Council approves slew of grant intakes

Council has accepted for information a slew of grant intakes as recommended by administration, with a total funding amount of $8,415.

Grant funding includes support for the Morinville Minstrels at $1,725, the Morinville Curling Club at $1,850, the Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps at $2,500, $1,485 for the St. Albert Bantam AAA Cardinals, and $855 for musician Justin Hogg.

The Minstrels, a group of senior choir singers dedicated to volunteer work throughout the region, were awarded their funding to participate in more events. The Curling Club was awarded their funding to replace visual and audio monitoring systems for games. The Bantam group was awarded to help fund three Morinville resident youth trips for tournament play. Justin Hogg, a local award-winning country musician was funded for transportation and accommodation, costs for an upcoming event.

The most funded group was the local Cadet Corps, who will be utilizing the funding to attend the 100th Anniversary tour of the battle at Vimy Ridge, along with thousands of other attendees from Canada and internationally. The Cadets present offered their individual explanation for reasoning to go on the trip, which they have already funded a great deal for. The delegation thanked Council following their approval.

The last intake available in 2016 has $8,683 in available funding.

Community Services Advisory Committee gets green light

Following a near unanimous vote from Council, the Community Services Advisory Committee terms of reference have received approval. The new committee will act as an advisory board to Council on community services policy and programming.

Before the policy was passed, Councillor Nicole Boutestein’s motion to include two councillors to the group got the nod after some debate. The original terms of reference suggested 1-2 councillors would sit on the committee as non-voting members.

The remaining positions on the committee are open to the public, with applications to be made available shortly, as well as Administration staff.

Council first batted the idea around last April following Councillor Stephen Dafoe’s request for information on options for a Community Services Board.

At that time, Chris Fish, Morinville’s Community Services Business and Operations Manager, presented on different options for what a potential community services board could look like, including overviews and the pros and cons of different board types, and how they have been implemented in nearby municipalities.

The two primary options presented to Council in the April report were an Advisory Board or an Operating Board. An Operations Board was identified as having more legal power and independence, but also more costly and with less flexibility and more bureaucratic baggage. Meanwhile, advisory boards were presented as having more flexibility and efficiency, but with limited authority. Council directed Administration to prepare the terms of reference for the Advisory Board.

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