Penhold council could be taking a look at a document that is meant to determine the future sustainability of the municipality in August.
Councillors voted during council Feb. 27 to table addressing the issue of the questionnaire until August, when things typically slow down.
Coun. Chad Hoffman brought forward a self-assessment toolkit designed by Municipal Affairs for council's consideration.
“It's stuff we should be looking at,” Hoffman said. He added having council and administration come together to work through the document would give them “a good picture of where we sit.”
Rick Binnedyk, Penhold's chief administrative officer, said the self-assessment can be useful but is “a fair bit of work.”
Coun. Danielle Klooster noted that this particular document was focused on summer villages and other small municipalities that were considering whether or not they should dissolve.
“I don't think we're there,” she said.
Klooster did say she thought municipal planning was a good idea.
“I think that we need to have more long-term plans for sustainability,” Klooster said.
Dennis Cooper, mayor of Penhold, said it is something that could be done at a later date.
“Right now we've got a lot of things on our plate,” he said. “We have a heavy development spring.”
Cooper said he wanted a clear direction for administration. Coun. Heather Klein suggested tabling the issue until August or September.
“I think that's a good idea,” Cooper said.
Binnedyk said at the most recent Alberta Urban Municipalities Association convention the president of the group said more municipalities are incurring long-term debt and are dependent on provincial funding.
“We need long-term, secure funding,” Binnedyk said.
Cooper said the self-assessment toolkit could be useful for determining plans.
“Where we're at, where's the ship going, what direction we're taking it in,” he said. He said Klein was right because working through the assessment will take “a tremendous amount” of time.
Klein made the motion to table the issue of the self-assessment toolkit until August. Council passed the motion unanimously.
