by MorinvilleNews.com Staff
Morinville Town Council met for their first of two regular meetings this month on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The second will be a budget-focused meeting on Sept. 21.
Presentations:
Council received two presentations. The first was Community Services Advisory Committee Chair Holly Hughes, and the second was STARS Air Ambulance Donor Relations and Development Officer Shannon Paquette. Hughes provided an update on the committee’s work over the past year, and Paquette provided an overview of STARS work, including statistics on calls to the area over the past few years. She also made a request of Council to consider funding STARS at $1 per capita (roughly $11,000 per year.) Council subsequently unanimously passed a motion from Councillor Scott Richardson to refer the request to a future meeting for budget consideration.
Procedural Bylaw Changes
Council gave third and final reading to some changes to its Procedural Bylaw without discussion or vote by not drawing it from the consent agenda. Council previously approved the first and second reading at the last meeting but deferred the third and final reading to the Sept. 10 meeting.
Procedure Bylaw No. 18/2024 was amended to reflect the previous Council direction regarding Notices of Motion, specifically allowing flexibility in scheduling motions, enabling the Council to choose future Regular Meeting dates instead of being restricted to the next one. This allows Council members can present motions at a more suitable time.
Investment Policy and Debt Policy
The council approved the town’s Investment Policy but referred the Debt Policy back to staff for some changes.
The proposed Debt Management Policy was revised due to changes in municipal borrowing options following the abolition of the Alberta Capital Finance Authority, with adjustments to remove internal borrowing limits, which Administration sees as redundant due to Council needing to pass a borrowing bylaw on any borrow. The administrative recommendation to remove an internal borrowing limit of 85% of what the Municipal Government Act allows (1.5 times revenue) was a point of concern for Councillors Stephen Dafoe and Scott Richardson, prompting the referral back to administration for further tweaks. Councillor Ray White also took issue with the removal of needing a business case on decision making. The draft policy will return to a later meeting for final decision.
The Investment Policy update, which focused on modernizing definitions and removing redundancies, passed unanimously.
Infrastructure spending triggers letter from Municipal Affairs
Morinville’s lack of spending on infrastructure in keeping with asset depreciation has created a municipal trigger with Municipal Affairs. The trigger was related to 2023 spending. Acting CAO Michelle Hay made the report to Council during Committee of the Whole, providing the Town’s response, justification and plan to rectify the situation. We will have more details on this aspect of the meeting later this week.
Closed Session
The agenda contained two closed session items: an Organizational Contract Update, which Administration requested under FOIP section 16 (Disclosure Harmful Third-Party Business), section 23 (Local Public Body
Confidences), section 24 (Advice from Officials), and section 25 (Disclosure Harmful to Public Body). Additionally, the Administration has requested a closed session on a Land Matter under FOIP section 16 (Disclosure Harmful Third-Party Business), section 24 (Advice from Officials), and section 25 (Disclosure Harmful to Public Body).
No decisions were made following the closed session when Council returned to the public meeting.
