OLDS — Town council members have decided on their representatives and alternate representatives for a variety of boards, committees and commissions from November, 2022 to October, 2023.
For example, all members of council (mayor Judy Dahl and councillors Wanda Blatz, James Cummings, Dan Daley, Heather Ryan, Harvey Walsh and Darren Wilson) will sit on the town’s Emergency Advisory Committee.
Following are the other appointments:
Intermunicipal Cooperation Committee: Dahl as well as councillors Blatz and Daley, as per a master agreement.
Mayors of South Central Alberta: Dahl.
Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission: Cummings; alternate — Ryan.
Mountain View Regional Water Services Commission: Blatz; alternate — Walsh.
Mountain View Seniors Housing Board: Ryan; alternate — Blatz.
Municipal Area Partnership: Dahl.
Olds Citizens on Patrol Society: Daley.
Olds & District Chamber of Commerce: Wilson.
Olds Municipal Library: Walsh.
Parkland Community Planning Services: Ryan.
Parkland Regional Library: Wilson.
Red Deer Municipal Users Group: Cummings; alternate — Walsh.
South Red Deer Regional Wastewater Commission: Walsh; alternate — Daley.
Municipal Planning Commission (MPC): All council, except Ryan, as it’s a conflict for her because she sits on the Subdivision Appeal Board.
The MPC appointment will take effect once a town bylaw is amended to make the change from a combination of councillors and members of the public to simply councillors.
However, there was a lot of discussion before council came to that decision.
Ryan said she had a couple of issues with the MPC portion.
First, she didn’t think the appointment of an all-council MPC should be ratified before the bylaw authorizing that change has been passed.
“It just sounds to me like we’re putting the cart before the horse,” she said.
Secondly, Ryan said the planning commission should include some members of the public, not just council.
“I think that the public at large should be involved in the Municipal Planning Commission. I think it takes the politics out of the decisions that are made at that level,” she said.
Coun. Darren Wilson said he was OK with proceeding as planned.
“My only comment is I do remember, recall when we had this discussion back a couple of weeks ago. I did support the direction we were going in then and I do support the direction we’re going (in) now,” he said.
Wilson said whether council was being “a little bit overly aggressive” by doing so or not, he was fine with the decision.
“To me it’s all in the interests of expediency and efficiency and being able to react quickly to requests as they come in.”
Chief administrative officer Brent Williams said technically Ryan was correct that it would be “neater” to have the bylaw amended first.
However, the job will still get done.
“From a practical point of view that we didn’t get the bylaw to council before this meeting,” he said. “We’re not out of step, it’s just not as neat as it could be.”
It was also pointed out that council will meet before the next scheduled MPC meeting anyway.
Mayor Dahl noted that in any case, the decision was “also based very much on financial, on cost savings.”
